She was more powerful than Katrina at one point, and did come at that coastline from the same angle for many days. It sounds like the fears of cat 4+ surges were realized... I'm surprised how far east the big surge seemed to hit though.
I used the Katrina model for the surge estimates before the storm. Two outer eyewall diameters, measured right from halfway between the eye center track and the left outer eyewall.
Coming in at an angle like that turned x storm relative lateral distance into 2x coastline distance. NWS said surge into Lake P was expected at 6 to 8 feet.
P.S. any word from Port Arthur yet?
beaumont, since after when they said "knee deep here, we dodged a bullet"?
They are in the worst areas for surge and it's been a while since new news came out.