[sefarkas]

The estimated elevation of the storm surge in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico has little to do with the surge that New Orleans has to deal with, i.e., the sloshing of water in Lake Ponchatrain which is around 15 feet deep. Water, as with any fluid, will seek its own level and move in the path of least resistance. The poor defenseless folks on the Mississippi Coast directly facing the ocean have cause to be concerned about a storm surge.

The damage from a Cat 5 would be from the power of the wind. The location of New Orleans combined with the levees protects it from realistic storm surges, not the ones invented by the MSM to sell TV time and newspaper ads.

The friction with the ground as hurricanes approach the coast nearly guarantee that no Cat 5 will ever put its eye over land. Note this and the other well organized storms that take a jog to the east each time they approach the coast as they pinwheel north. It is no accident that Katrina was Cat 4 at landfall at the mouth of the river nearly 50 miles from New Orleans proper.

[ndkos]

Actually, that's not all true. Hurricanes do tend to decrease in strength somewhat before they hit land but not always. Hurricane Andrew which hit Florida as a Cat 5 had stregthened rapidly in the hours prior to landfall. Also Hurricane Camille with an amazing 190 mile/hr winds (an extremely strong Cat 5) hit Mississippi in the 60's.