Life’s about to get a lot tougher in the Big Easy, as New Orleans battens down the hatches in preparation for an onslaught from hurricane Katrina. Katrina is lurking in the Gulf of Mexico. Watches and warnings have been issued for parts of the Louisiana coast. Latest predictions put it hitting the shore near the Louisiana-Mississippi border by Monday.

The National Hurricane Centre says Katrina could becoming a category four storm on a scale of five, with winds in excess of 210 kilometres per hour.It has already hit Florida, coming ashore just south of Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. Seven people have been killed and millions left without electricty. Key West has experienced its fifth wettest day on record since the late 1870s. Insured losses have been estimated at anything between six hundred million to two billion dollars.

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