Gustav Weakens; Outter Rain Bands To Being Effecting Gulf Coast Soon

GUSTAV UPDATE...
   Gustav Weakens, But Remains A Major Hurricane; Gustav Is Still A Storm Not To Mess Around With, Evacuations And Preparations Need To Be Rushed To Completion...


     Hurricane Gustav has weakened since it made landfall over Cuba. The interaction with Cuba has apparently taken a more severe toll on Gustav then expected. Never-the-less Gustav remains a dangerous Category 3 Hurricane. Further strengthening is likely, but no rapid intensification is likely due to the fact that it will be moving over water that's slightly cooler by about 2 - 5 degrees, and some increasing shear. There is an eye but its not very evident on satellite imagery, and the coldest cloud tops are mainly to the southwest of it. With all that said Gustav still remains a major hurricane with sustained winds of 115MPH with gusts to 140MPH. Pressure has just recently dropped a little more to 956 Millibars.
     National Weather Service Doppler Radar indicates that outer rain bands continue to effect the Florida Peninsula, and Rain bands will be spreading across the Florida Panhandle, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana over the next several hours. These rain bands will produce squally weather, and wind gusts up to 35MPH. Tropical storm force winds will arrive later tonight. All preparations and evacuations need to be rushed to completion. If you live from the central Louisiana Coast and east at BEST you have 2-5 hours before things start to go downhill. If you live west of the central Louisiana coast to the Louisiana Texas border you have at BEST 5-8 hours before things go downhill. If you did not evacuate and you live along the coast in those areas or up to 50 miles inland you need to rush thing to completion and take cover. Expected storm surge flooding has gone down slightly but still a dangerous 9 - 12 feet with Southeast Louisiana including Lake Pontchartrain seeing storm surge up to 18 feet above normal tide. This is a very dangerous situation.
     Computer models continue to indicate a landfall along the south central Louisiana coast. This will allow for the highest storm surge to occur to the east of the Landfall, this would place New Orleans in the highest storm surge area. Models are still having a hard time though as to what will exactly happen once Gustav makes landfall. Some models stall it out over land where it will transition from a Damaging wind, heavy rain, and storm surge threat, to more of a heavy rain and flooding threat. Other models indicate it will curve to the right and go well inland and track up across the country, and some models indicate that it may curve to the Southwest and emerge back over water Southeast, off the Texas coast. Either way this is a dangerous storm, and please monitor the furthest updates from this blog, as well as your local media, and weather outlets.