list yet again. that s coming up in the skinny. but first this wednesday morning, hurricane isaac slowly is winding its way inland. a slow-moving, monster, rainmaker that stretches 200 miles from its center. moving at eight miles per hour. slow, not good for rainfall totals. isaac did make landfall in southeast louisiana last evening. 6:45 central time. southeast of new orleans. it has already triggered some coastal storm surges. but the worst flooding could be still ahead, isaac predicted to dump as much as 20 inches of rain. we begin with abc s toman bradley there in new orleans, good morning. reporter: good morning, rob, paula. isaac made landfall as a category 1 hurricane in louisiana, with 80-mile-per-hour winds. the city of new orleans this morning is empty. people are not out in the streets. they re hunkered down. weathering the storm. for your own safety, the safety of others, use common
with hurricanes, especially with katrina still fresh on their mind as we mentioned, the seven-year anniversary today the day. i talked to a reporter earlier from the new orleans times picayune. it is a small hurricane. it is large in size in breadth, but not in terms of intensity. that s the good thing. how is the city weathering the storm so far? residents were told to hunker down in their own homes. if they didn t plan on evacuating voluntarily. and that s pretty much what everybody has done. the winds are still fairly high outside. we are still getting gusts to 65 miles an hour. the fact that this storm is moving so slowly would seem the number one concern, you said a second ago, the amount of rainfall, the estimates, 10 to 20 inches. what could that potentially mean for the city? one of the real concerns making sure the pump stations continue to work. now the pump stations have all
a span, though, of more than 200 miles. a huge storm. abc s matt gutman was in goshe, mississippi, and ryan owens in louisiana with some of what they experienced in the few hours. reporter: we are not far from the gulf of mexico and not at all far from the eye of isaac. we expect that will pass directly over us. so far it is not raining. we have seen plenty of rain throughout the night. right now we re in between bands. we have seen some gusty wind. nothing that approaches hurricane strength, not yet. we are next to the public library here, couple blocks from a shelter where 175 people are spending the night. most of them families with small children who said, you know what, we are not going to take a chance of losing power, not with small children in the house. ironically, we met one mother there who has a 4-year-old son who is named isaac, she said he is getting quite a bit of grief around the shelter when people find out he shares a name with this storm. mississippi, the rain an
nothing to dissipate the rain band. we will see substantial rainfall here across southeastern louisiana, new orleans, southern mississippi, all the way eastward into mobile. and, along with that, the strong gusty winds, entire expanse of clouds and rain. many spots seeing tropical storm-force wind. storm surge, flooding a big time concern through the day. jim, once it gets past new orleans and further up, the storm system could impact folks up to the great lakes. this is a big, big storm, damage is not done just yet? that s true. but also, of note, maybe some good news here. a few models i ve been looking at, could take it over the areas under extreme drought. we see systems too much of a good thing. and see inland flooding. perhaps we do get some of that much needed rainfall going forward. sounds good. good news, because the river was low because of the drought. the mississippi. could handle it. good news.
we re still getting gusts to, to 65 miles an hour. the fact that this storm is moving so slowly would seem number-one concern, as you said, the amount of rainfall, the estimates we are hearing, 10 to 20 inches, what could that potentially mean for the city? one of the real concerns is making sure the pump stations continue to work. and the pump stations have all gotten backup power supplies in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. so that so far seems to be working. what is still being looked at closely in terms of waking up wednesday morning? we re looking at increases in wind speed as the storm continues to move inland and closer to new orleans. at this point it looks like the storm protection system is holding and doing its job? this is a significant surge event we are looking at. 10, 12 feet of surge in some places. but the new levee system is high enough especially on the eastern side of the river, where