The storm has dramatically affected planning for the Republican National Convention. Isaac: Category 2 hurricane 'likely'

Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to be a hurricane soon and “most likely” will reach Category 2 before making landfall — possibly near New Orleans, if its projected path holds.

“Isaac expected to be a hurricane soon,” reads the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. “Significant storm surge and flood threat from rainfall expected along the Northern Gulf coast.”


Isaac is expected to become a hurricane Monday night or early Tuesday, and to strengthen before hitting at or near the southeastern Louisiana coast sometime Tuesday.

A hurricane specialist at the center told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the forecast was still unpredictable.

“We tell people to prepare for one category higher,” Eric Blake said. “It’s not out of the question that it could become a Category 3, but Category 2 is most likely.”

Maximum sustained winds have increased to about 70 miles an hour and will likely continue to strengthen. The storm is currently moving northwest, about 230 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Hurricane warnings are in effect for parts of Louisiana stretching from Morgan City to the Alabama-Florida border, a region that includes “metropolitan New Orleans,” the report said. The storm also brings with it the threat of flooding, with three to six feet of water possible for the Florida panhandle, and another one to three feet threatening the west coast of the state.

“The die has already been cast as far as Isaac’s wind field size,” Jon Erdman, a Weather Channel meteorologist, said. “This means surge flooding will be significant even if Isaac is ‘only’ a Category 1 or low-end Category 2 hurricane.”

Erdman said that the storm is expected to slow as it gets closer to landfall, “So coastal flooding, rainfall flooding, and damaging wind impacts will be more long-lasting than the typical landfall event.”

The states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have declared a state of emergency, according to The Weather Channel.

The storm has dramatically affected planning for the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay, with Monday’s planned activities canceled and postponed for later in the week in anticipation of the weather dangers posed by the storm.

In Tampa Bay itself, occasional thunderstorms are expected throughout the day, with wind gusts around 24 miles per hour, according to the Weather Channel.

On Monday afternoon, the GOP convention will formally gavel in, but will immediately adjourn for the day, with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus citing safety for assembled Republican delegates.

“I think that the show is going to go on,” Priebus told Fox News on Sunday. “Obviously, we’ve got to take it as it comes. We’re going to be nimble. We’re going to make sure we do the right thing. Safety first. And obviously we want to make sure that everyone, no matter where you are, is safe in this storm.”