The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Katrina to a Category 5 hurricane, with winds having been measured at 160 mph.  The target still appears centered on Port Fourchon.  The map hasn't changed much since the one Prof G posted just below.  Only the severity of the storm has risen drastically.  

Hurricane Katrina is a Category 5 hurricane, which means its storm surges are generally greater than 18 feet above normal and that its winds exceed 155 miles per hour. Only three hurricanes of this strength have ever hit land in the United States since the category was recorded: the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the hurricane center said.

 As Reuters notes

The last Category 5 to strike the area was Hurricane Camille in 1969. Camille just missed New Orleans but devastated large swaths of Louisiana and Alabama, and killed more than 400 people. Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed the city of Homestead south of Miami in 1992 and ranks as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, was also a Category 5.

UPDATE: I went back to our post on Memorial Day which gave the data for last year. As a result of last years storms we lost 0.5 mbd of oil from about now through the end of the year, and as J noted

We routinely evacuate offshore platforms when a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico. Deepwater work must cease quickly, because the rigs are dynamically moored. Shallow rigs are left in place as are platforms, but the production is shut-in and personnel evacuated. Last year, we had 15 platforms that were damaged and required repair. The industry had over 75 total damaged, two had drilling rigs collapse on top of them. These repairs sometimes run months due to personnel and equipment shortages in our industry.

And to bring the comment I added on "The Oil Storm" to the fore, I rewatched the opening this morning. Fox predicted that Julia, a category 4 hurricane, would hit Port Fourchon next weekend, taking out the Port and the access roads, and bridge, and the LOOP (which is a 1 mbd facility). Gas prices would rise by that Wednesday (10 days from now) from $50 to $70 a barrel. Hmmm! Wonder where they will go now? The DoE opened the SPR and released 1 mbd to ease tensions, which it did. The Mayor of New Orleans played himself in the movie. For real he has just said

"The real issue - that I don't think the nation is paying attention to - is that through the city of New Orleans, through the Gulf of Mexico, we probably deal with almost a third of the nation's domestic oil that is produced. And that will most likely be shut down," Mr. Nagin said. "So, this can have a significant impact on oil prices going forward," he added.

Technorati Tags: peak oil, oil