36 hours is usually sufficient for final storm preparations.
My sister lost her husband of 25 years to Alzheimer's in July. She is all by herself now and so I think she is not thinking so clearly right now. She said she may come to see me in SC but she doesn't seem to be in too much of a hurry. She has to do everything to prepare on her own and she hasn't even started yet! I doubt she has eve put gas in her car.
And here's the morning model runs from the S. Fla. water management district website. Now I gotta go mow the grass. http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/omd/ops/weather/plots/storm_12.gif
With all this attention on NOLA, I hope the folks in Mobile are paying even closer attention. Mobile has seen her fair share of storms over the past few years, but that "nightmare scenario" for there has yet to materialize. In all those storms the eye either came right up the Bay or to the east. The result was the water being sucked out of the Bay. I've seen this effect first hand with Frederick ('79), and my Pops said it happened again with Ivan.
A Goula/Biloxi landfall will put the "dirty" part of the storm pumping water right up the Bay. A 30 ft surge in Mobile will not be pretty besides the fact that my parents and grandparents home would be completely under water. Bay Front Road and Downtown Mobile under 30 ft of water is a very disheartening thought.