Eye went right over New Orleans this evening. Lots of damage being reported across SE Louisiana and southern Mississippi so far. Looks like it landfalled as a powerful cat 2 storm.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see it bumped up to cat 3 in post-analysis.
At any rate, this looks to be one of the most remarkable inland tropical-storm wind events we’ve seen in a long time. Tropical storm warnings extend northeast from the landfall point through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia (including Atlanta, where I am), Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia - all the way up to Lynchburg.
It is eerily calm here. Unless you looked at news or radar, you’d never guess a tropical storm was headed our way. Sure, it’s wet and sticky, but there is zero wind. That will change in a few hours.