Hurricane Isaac Hovers Near New Orleans

It's been strengthening very slowly, but at 11:20 AM CDT yesterday Isaac was officially declared to have become a category 1 hurricane. Whilst still a mere tropical storm, here's what it did to Haiti a few short days ago:

According to ABC News:

There are over 400,000 Haitians still living in makeshift tent cities. Many of them had no way to escape this storm.

According to the latest public advisory bulletin from the National Hurricane Center:

THE CENTER OF HURRICANE ISAAC WAS ESTIMATED NEAR GALLIANO LOUISIANA. THIS IS ALSO ABOUT 20 MILES SOUTHEAST OF HOUMA LOUISIANA AND ABOUT 50 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA. ISAAC HAS BEEN STATIONARY DURING THE PAST HOUR…BUT A GENERAL MOTION TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 6 MPH IS EXPECTED TO RESUME LATER THIS MORNING.

According to ABC News once again:

This could be the first major test for those multi billion dollar levees, beefed up since breaking under Katrina seven years ago this week

Note that at approximately 0:15 in the above video Barack Obama says that:

Now's not the time to temp fate. Now's not the time to dismiss official warnings. You need to take this seriously.

According to the Entergy Corporation "Storm Center" web page, currently there are over 400,000 properties in Louisiana without electricity:

Power outage map for southern Louisiana at 6:51 AM on Wednesday August 29th 2012

In conclusion, here's an official warning from the Arctic Methane Emergency Group that Barack Obama needs to take seriously:

We are presenting what we consider the overwhelming scientific evidence of a planetary emergency arising from a combination of:

(i) the warming of the Arctic,

(ii) the rapid melting away of Arctic sea ice,

(iii) the releasing into the atmosphere of ever larger quantities of the potent greenhouse gas, methane, from thawing structures, and

(iv) positive feedback between these three processes.

Why keep tempting fate?