Are you even paying attention? They UNDERFORECAST the surge from Katrina. By 5-8 feet. People who thought they were high enough from the forecast was telling them died. And this storm has more kinetic energy associated with it than Katrina at her peak. Not only that, forecasters are calling this a freak storm. Which means they don't fully understand it. They might be overforecasting out of caution as a result. But the point it, they got Katrina wrong. Five feet of elevation is not a workable safety margin for this storm. IMO anyone in the map in post #51 who lives in a shaded area should get out. You are dicing with death if you don't.
I’ll repeat my earlier comment: none of us is able to judge another’s prospects for safety by reading about it on line.
Boy, that attituded really worked well in NOLA with Katrina, where over half the people who died had a car in their driveway.
Because it's larger. So it's moving a lot more water. Which makes plenty of difference to someone living 50 miles from where the eye comes ashore -- but our friend is interested only in the water headed for her house.
For the record, the NHC's forecast (as of 10 am CDT) maxes out the storm surge at 25 feet, and only in selected areas. For most areas, they max it out at 20 feet. I have a hard time believing they would err on the low side here, after the Katrina disaster.