Hurricane Barry Strikes Louisiana with Massive Flooding Ahead

Last Monday I mentioned in passing on this blog that an anomalous tropical storm system...anomalous because it originated in the mainland U.S. instead of western Africa...was forecast to possibly become a tropical depression toward the end of the week and drift westward once it entered the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida panhandle.  Well, almost all of that came true...except for the fact that it's now the end of the week and the storm system has developed into a full-blown hurricane, Barry, which is now (early Saturday afternoon) entering the southern coast of Louisiana.  Already there are reports of flooding and malfunctioning levees while the worst of the storm by far is still offshore in the Gulf.  By the time all of it has crossed over to the mainland, there will in all likelihood be catastrophic flooding throughout Louisiana as well as Arkansas and those parts of the South bordering the Mississippi River...the fact that this system is slow-moving is aggravating the situation...