Is New Orleans About to Get Hit with Katrina, Round Two?

If you live anywhere near New Orleans, you may want to grab your kids, pets, and parents, and get out of town...maybe even as soon as you finish reading this article. Tropical Depression 13, about to be formally renamed Tropical Storm Lee, is preparing to drop as much as 15 inches of rain on New Orleans this weekend. According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm, which is scheduled for landfall in New Orleans around 1 p.m. Saturday, packs winds around 60 mph. Remembering Katrina and the loss of life that came with poor planning and poorer execution, Louisiana officials have already declared a state of emergency and moved into action. Craig Taffaro, president of coastal St. Bernard Parish, told the New Orleans Times Picayune that preparations were underway to make sure this event is nothing like Katrina. They are closing some flood gates along bayous and residents in the area expected to be hit by the storm are being warned to brace for heavy rain. They are doing all this despite the likelihood that it's all unneeded, and that Lee will pass by like just any other bad storm. "We'd like the public to use this as a drill. Hopefully that's all it will be," he told the paper. Tropical storm warnings are in effect from Pascagoula, Miss., across the coast to Sabine Pass, Texas, according to ABC News. Meanwhile, the concern at the National Hurricane Center is that the storm could not only hit coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, but linger there for a few days. If it does they, they warn, the storm could suck up Gulf water and drop rain for an entire week. "It's just hovering there," said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the NHC. "Until something comes to nudge it along, it just sits there, pumping up all that juice from the Gulf, with rain bands already spreading across southeastern Louisiana." All of this news comes on the day that New Orleans learned that its levee system, which recently underwent a $10 billion upgrade courtesy of the federal government, received near-failing grades. That's right. The system designed to deal with flood waters that are about to rain down on New Orleans is almost as bad now as it was before they fixed it. While Louisiana braces for its storm, the East Coast awaits word on whether a second hurricane will visit the region in as many weeks. Hurricane Katia, currently off in the Atlantic Ocean, has regained strength and could be targeting the same cities just devastated by Hurricane Irene.