Fickle Isaac keeps everyone guessing

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Once again this morning Hurrican Isaac keeps hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents guessing. Where will he go next and, more important, what will it mean for me?

NATCHEZ — Why did any of us think Hurricane Isaac would be easy to figure out? The storm has clearly been tricking hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents for days.

Earlier this week a frustrated Stan Owens, Adams County’s Emergency Management Director, wrote on Facebook that Isaac had changed its mind more often than Owens took a breath.

First the storm was aimed at the Florida panhandle. Then almost by the hour, the world’s most advanced computer models struggled to figure out exactly where he would land. The targeted “cone” of his likely path shifted by the hour and apparently continues to do so despite the storm’s landfall Tuesday night.

Email newsletter signup

Isaac’s track has continued to move ever westward and forecasters reported at 7 a.m. that the storm was stationary for approximately an hour, but they believe it will continue, generally, in a northwestern motion at approximately 6 mph.

As the storm has continued to shift westward, Adams County has gone from being squarely in the center of its path to being only barely inside the most eastward side of the latest cone, released early Wednesday.

The shift reflect a continued wobble by the excruciatingly slow-moving storm. Even with the westward movement, the Natchez-Adams County area and the entire Miss-Lou is expected to receive at least 8 to 10 inches of rain over the next 24 hours. That much rain combined with high winds could topple trees in the area. In the latest forecast, winds are expected to pick up by midday Wednesday and continue to be blowing at nearly 40 mph for the rest of the day and into the night.

At least that’s the plan early Wednesday. Certainly Isaac will change them again any second now.