it does appear that as we speak, isaac is strengthening in the very warm waters of the gulf of mexico. let's go to the satellite and show you what i mean. lots of heavy rain still coming down in that band across south florida. so far we've seen 6 to 12 inches of rain and also a tornado watch in effect for the southern and central part of the state. now, the storm is movg just west, northwest away from florida. later today and tonight it will be located about 300 miles to the west of tampa. that's quite a distance, but they're still going to see very heavy rain and strong gusty winds. the brunt way out in the gulf of mexico. as the system approaches the northern gulf coast around new orleans, biloxi and mobile, it should be a category 2 or could be a category 2. it's possible it could be slightly stronger than that because it has a lot of warm water to work with. as a result, hurricane warnings in effect for that area. we could be talking about a pretty strong hurricane making landfall later tuesday during the day and during the evening, especially along the north gulf of mexico coast.

well, isaac is moving relatively slowly over the gulf of mexico. it seems isaac will take almost a similar path that hurricane katrina took seven years ago. so right now moving at the speed of 90 kilometers per hour with sustained winds, it'll likely become a category 2 hurricane before making landfall in mississippi or louisiana by late tuesday or wednesday morning local time. so rainfall could be 460 millimeters in parts of the deep south. that's about three times more than the amount of rain for august for this region. very heavy rain is coming down. in addition to heavy rains, gusty winds, storm surge, currents are possible. so coastal flooding is highly likely here. as for the rest of north america, things are remaining quite wet across the coastal areas of the mid-atlantic region. out west wet across the western british aisles. conditions will remain ideal for wild fires into your tuesday. as for temperatures, heating up to 32 degrees in los angeles and 36 degrees in houston. here's the extended forecast. >>> our lead story this hour, u.s. rep

morning, tropical storm isaac is gaining strength as it churns across the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. isaac is forced to hit the gulf coast as a hurricane late tuesday or wednesday. isaac is 450 miles southeast of the mouth of mississippi river. that storm moving west, northwest with sustained winds of 65 miles per hour. isaac is moving away from the florida coast. hurricane warnings are posted from morgan city, louisiana to destine, florida, including new orleans. emergency declarations have been issued in louisiana and mississippi. right now, more than 50,000 residents of st. charles parrish in new orleans are being told to get out. meteorologist of our miami station wfor has the latest on where isaac may be headed. >> here's the latest on isaac. as of had morning, as you can see a blow-up of thunderstorms. it does appear that as we speak, isaac is strengthening in the very warm waters of the gulf of mexico. let's go to the satellite and show you what i mean. lots of heavy rain still coming down in that band across south florida. so far we've seen 6 to 12 inches of rain and also a

of emergency. the u.s. hurricane center says isaac will hit the gulf coast as a hurricane n that it's making its ways into the mouth of the gulf of mexico under a hurricane warning. our chad myers predicting that this storm, which would be a hurricane, could reach category 3 strength. louisiana's governor is asking people living in the low-lying areas of the coast to voluntary evacuate and start that right now. voluntarily. so it's been nearly seven years since hurricane katrina destroyed much of the gulf coast and flooded new orleans. aaron neville is from the crescent city. he and his family evacuated to memphis before katrina hit. fellow new orleanian and cnn producer jessica dunn sat down with neville to talk about the months after the storm and how the city has since recovered. >> i was kind of bitter. i was, like, i don't know, i felt violated, you know? because i never went back to that house where i lived with my first wife, joelle, and it was like i didn't want to go back and, you know, because we had been getting away from hurricanes for a few years, you know. if i'm on the road, i tell them get out of town, you know, and they

. >> in an ominous scenario, the storm is roaring in the gulf of mexico, target, the gulf coast on what will be the anniversary of hurricane katrina. >>> republicans are making changes to their convention schedule and an extremely brief session is set for today. >>> hello convention season. we have the results of a new abc news poll. republican mitt romney and president obama in a dead heat. >>> from afghanistan, another insider attack. an afghan solder opens fire causing more deaths among those on the same side. >>> good morning, everybody. what is turning out to be a busy monday morning. we begin with isaac. >> the storm is gaining strength this morning as it spins in the gulf of mexico. states of emergency are in effect across the entire gulf coast. residents watching, waiting, and hoping for the best. republicans are adjusting their convention schedule. >> it's getting serious out there. evacuation orders, school closings. t.j. winick starts us off. he's in tampa with the latest. good morngo u,j. >> reporter: rob a paula, good morning toou both. righnow, activities at the repuican c

back down to the gulf of mexico -- stay nice and low. back down to the gulf of mexico to see our radar area, in the light green areas are the flash flood warnings. at 11:00 the update, headed 70 miles west of new orleans, 50 miles south of baton rouge. on radar it almost looks look only half of the circle to the east side and north. now we're finding a lot of dry air apparently trying to push in eroding the other side of tropical storm isaac, but these bands in particular are very dangerous. they have tropical storm force winds and have produced four tornadoes and it looks as though we have a tornado warning again for a portion of extreme southeastern arkansas -- alabama rather or western portions of pensacola. so that is still remaining very active. the storm has not moved very much because high pressure to the north is blocking it. that high should start to shift a little bit tomorrow and perhaps we'll start seeing it move a bit. in terms of the tropical wind gusts a 43-mile an hour wind gust at hammond, baton rouge 37, around new orlea

thank you. >> next, production increases in the gulf of mexico could "all come crashing down" in the event of another oil spill, and criticized congress for failing to pass any drilling registration -- legislation. tripling of energy production in the gulf by 2020. hour. there will be a panel discussion on state and federal efforts to coordinate a nationwide anti bullying companion -- campaign. you can watch it live at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span t2. on friday, the former chief offshore drilling inspector warned. congress was criticized for failing to pass and a chilling safety regulations since the oil spill. this is just over an hour. >> will get started. thanks for coming today. i am a member of the national press club newsmaker committee. i am a founding partner at the policy group at guiliani. i am pleased to be here, because i have lots of good friends on the panel. we have worked together on offshore drilling issues for a few years, because they have been in the news a little bit. i am going to introduce everybody really quickly. we are going to hear from each panelist individu

as of july 1, according to baker-hughes, there were 19 active drilling rigs in the gulf of mexico. at is still short of pre- moratorium numbers. the gulf of mexico is an important energy source. there are tremendous reserves yet to be tapped. can reverse the trend of falling production, the better in terms of economic security and energy security. in today's markets with growing demand despite the recession in europe and slowdowns in other parts of the world, growing demand for oil. why aren't more rigs currently operating in the gulf of mexico and offshore? one reason is the current regulatory regime. we have a new set of regulations. there's a learning curve and we need to understand these new regulations. piper's is not to criticize but to suggest there is room for improvements in the way we administer our offshore operations. the industry is committed to safety and reliability in their offshore operations, i believe. macondo was a public-relations disaster. the containment facilities are available if there is another blowout and we hope that does not happen. i would also argue t

as of july 1, according to baker-hughes, there were 19 active drilling rigs in the gulf of mexico. that is still short of pre- moratorium numbers. the gulf of mexico is an important energy source. there are tremendous reserves yet to be tapped. can reverse the trend of falling production, the better in terms of economic security and energy security. in today's markets with growing demand despite the recession in europe and slowdowns in other parts of the world, growing demand for oil. currently more rigs operating in the gulf of mexico and offshore? one reason is the current regulatory regime. we have a new set of regulations. there's eight learning curve -- there is a learning curve and we need to understand these new regulations. piper's is not to criticize but to suggest there is room for improvements in the way we administer our offshore operations. the industry is committed to safety and reliability in their offshore operations, i believe. macondo was a public-relations disaster. the containment facilities are available if there is another blowout and we hope that does not happ

and as isaac rolls through the gulf of mexico, targeting landfall sometime later today, jeff flock is on the scene in gulf port, mississippi. jeff we saw you all morning. how have the conditions changed just in the last couple of hours? jeff: well, dagen, i will tell you, if you look at it right now, you would think that the hurricane was over, it was time to go home, and this is the way it works. you occasionally get the bands that come through that we saw earlier this morning when it was raining. take a look right now, even though the surf has intensified somewhat, we have the sun poking through, it is warm out here and this kind of goes with the history of this storm. we keep thinking it is going to intensify. we keep saying we're rite on the -- we're right on the edge. and we keep staying right on the edge. it hasn't intensified again even despite the fact that maybe it looks more so on the map, on the satellite picture. take a look at the rainfall, though, even though right now it looks like it is a nice day out here to some degree other than the wind and a little bit of surf, ta

west of here out in the gulf of mexico turning north at 40 m.p.h., expected to make landfall by late tuesday or early wednesday, people there are bracing for the worse. a >> 53,000 people that live west of new orleans have been ordered to evacuate. many residents are heeding that warning filling up their cars and having in mind. >> we will take off. we went through katrina, and had a bad experience with that. >> ithe surface picking up. >> they're forecasting it to become a hurricane later today, if not today then tonight. >> it is expected to become a category one hurricane before it hits land late tuesday or early wednesday which is the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina. the governors of florida and alabama and mississippi and louisiana have all declared states of emergency. the storm is expected to bring at least 65 m.p.h. wind, dumping more than a foot of rain on the gulf coast. >> people living in those areas, today's the day to get out of harm's way. >> and knocked out power to thousands of homes when it hit the florida keys. as much as 3 in. of rain are expected to fall

katrina was at one point a category 5 in the gulf of mexico. that allowed it to build a tremendous storm surge and push it toward the coast. this is not going to have the same opportunity. you can see the center of circulation pulling away from florida. want to show you the radar in a second. a heavy rain band sweeping across florida. all the moisture flowing into florida, we are looking at the center of what is now tropical storm isaac there in the gulf of mexico, pushing off toward the west northwest at 14. 65 gusting to 75. forecast track takes it just a little bit farther west than earlier but not by much. we are talking about this is the mouth of the mississippi river, plaqumines's parish here. the city of new orleans is going to be on the right side of this, the strong side of the storm, but also let's not forget this. when this water gets pushed off toward the north here on the east side of the storm, you have the water flowing in toward areas east of new orleans, especially the mississippi gulf coast is going to take a beating from this,

tampa was rather concerned with the convention in town and isaac in the gulf of mexico. with more on that, here's randall pinkston. >>> 53,000 people west of new orleans have been ordered to evacuate. many residents are heeding the warning, filling up their cars and heading inland. >> we are going to take off. we went through katrina and had a bad experience with that. >> reporter: in mississippi the surf is starting to kick up at tropical storm isaac strengthens in the gulf of mexico. >> we are forecasting it to become a hurricane. if not today then today. >> reporter: isaac is expected to become a category 1 hurricane before it hits land late tuesday or early wednesday, which is the seventh anniversary of headquarter katrina. the governors of florida, alabama, mississippi and louisiana have all declared states of emergency. the storm is expected to bring at least 65 miles per hour winds, dumping more than a foot of rain on the gulf coast states. >> we are strongly encouraging those folks to participate in a voluntary evacuation today. >> reporter: isaac knocked out powe

tropical storm on a westward march to gulf of mexico. hurricane warnings have been issued for portions of the northern gulf coast. threatening to disrupt gulf supplies. platforms have been evacuated. a powerful hurricane could make landfall near louisiana almost seven years to the day after katrina struck. let's get more on the storm's path right now. alex wallace joins us live from the weather channel. alex. >> good morning. isaac, no doubt the big story. latest stats from the national hurricane center, latest advisory, 65 mile-per-hour sustained winds. as you mentioned moving to the west-northwest at 14 miles per hour. hasn't changed a lot since the last advisory for folks here. but we're still certainly seeing it looking a little better at least in term of the satellite presentation compared to what it did say 24 to 36 hours ago. center of circulation well to the south and west of the southern portions of florida but we're still feeling the impacts. you see some of the clouds streaming all the way up into the central portions of the st

i'm like, "okay, i think we're going to do pretty well here, for some reason." >> tom: in the gulf of mexico and onshore, the energy industry also is dealing with isaac. 93% of gulf of mexico oil production has been shut in. on shore, five refineries from southeast of new orleans to near baton rouge have shut down production. another three have reduced their operations. they sit in the latest forecast path of the storm. more than 12% of refinery capacity along the gulf coast has been shut down. additionally, one crude oil pipeline supplying more than one million barrels of crude to midwest refineries also has shut down. kevin kerr is with us. he is president of kerr trading international. >> kevin, is there going to be a short term impact at the gasoline pump because of this? >> we're already seeing it, especially in new orleans and sensitive areas along the gulf coast. this is really more of a fear premium. >> is it going to spread beyond the gulf coast to the northwest and northeast? >> it depends if we see more storms. it's the busiest season for hurricanes, and if it continues prices wil

escape the wrath of isaac, but the storm is still flexing its muscle as it moves through the gulf of mexico this morning. take a look at that. isaac expected to reach hurricane strength before striking the gulf coast this week. louisiana, mississippi and alabama are all under a state of emergency right now. the tropical storm battered the florida keys sunday with torrential rain and powerful winds on its way to becoming a full-blown hurricane. warnings are now up from florida's panhandle all the way to new orleans and people there are bracing for possible impact on wednesday, seven years to the day that hurricane katrina devastated that city. cnn's rob marciano is live in new orleans with all of the details for us this morning. what is the very latest there? >> reporter: well, zoraida, they're prepping for the storm as you heard from the mayor earlier. they are asking for voluntary evacuations in the city, outside of the city in plaquemines and part of st. charles parishes. they're outside of the levee system, basically, there are mandatory evacuations, but until it's forecast to be a categ

oil companies including bp and shell are evacuate some rigs in the gulf of mexico. mexico-- evacuating some rigs s in the gulf of mexico. >>> incredible new video from inside a bus that slammed into a maryland home, all that and more when fox 5 news at 10:00 continues. oh, one more and a mother's dramatic leap for safety is caught on cam, camera.  >>> twice in the last week someone has tried to rob a bank by cutting a hole in a wall from the next-door business. it happened last friday morning at bank of america on connecticut avenue and then again this morning at an m&t bank on wisconsin avenue in georgetown. fox 5's paul wagner has the story. >> reporter: the fbi today released these images of a man in a white hazmat suit wearing a blue baseball cap using tools to cut through a wall in order to get to the automatic teller machine. it was around 2 a.m. when police got the call for an alarm at the bank. 12 hours later investigators were still processing the crime scene. at one point they called in the fire department to make sure the building was structurally

the gulf of mexico guys pioneered the horizontal drilling with new tools. fields you could do it in were owned by the ma i jors. now we have a bunch of those large fields. i think you're going to be some incredibly successful horizontal wells. we're running pipe. we'll drill about 1,000 foot lateral. this is not like shell drilling. they're short laterals, really high flow rates and we're going to concentrate on moving volume, increasing our recoveries. and i think as those kick in, you're going to see the multiple increase you're talking about. >> i see the am of oil you pull out of the ground. people made estimates about what is in the gulf of mexico a long time ago. what you're showing is that's not the case. are you just another part of this puzzle that shows why we could have north american energy self-sufficiency and it's not pie in the sky and it's not a political promise? >> i would agree with that. it's not pie in the sky. it involves some hard work and involves some things that have always gone on in our industry. you have the majors, independents

and mississippi and that area. 16" more, plus, to the east of new orleans but that is over the gulf of mexico. as you look at the storm, it is like this and the worst of it is here. that's the part that will be sitting over the gulf of mexico. the biggest problem is it will keep raining. going and going and going for hours. they are hoping when it hits land it speeds up and races away. hurricane andrew traveled at 30 miles per hour when it came in to south florida just flying across south florida. so it did not just it is and spin. they hope this will speed up in the end but so far it has not. now, someone who was here in new orleans in the lower 9th when katrina came. and they did not send the buses. >> they did not send the buses. >>shepard: that is why so many people died. >> that is correct. >>shepard: they made a decision not to send buses. this is not that storm. during katrina we have pictures of your home and what happened to it. your neighborhood was ruined. >>guest: washed gully. looked like a bomb was dropped in the lower 9th. this time, i commend mayor landrieu on his plan this ti

they got $7.9 billion selling gulf of mexico oil fields. h everybody else, right? >> yeah, we're going to be in there kicking tires. those are really large projects that most of it is going to be remained operated by some of the majors that already operate them. and it's going to be some good opportunities, but we kind of focus on where we get to be the operator, where we come up with an idea and literally, one of my young engineers comes up with an idea within two weeks of their executing that plan. >> okay. now -- >> that's hard to do if you don't operate. >> well, no, now -- i know you're just now switching to horizontal drilling for some of these older fiding. i thought when you announced it, people would again rerate you. the price to earnings multiple is, i don't know, if i were you, i would say why am i even working? i can't get the stock up even if i delivered far better growth than anybody else. >> i've had a few days like that, but you do what you do well, you keep doing it and the market will eventually reward you. the horizontal

gulf? >> it will affect everybody in the country if there is major damage mainly because some of the biggest refineries in the country are in the gulf of mexico. you only have to look at indiana and california where they lost refineries and see the ripple effect. if you get a shortage of oil or gas at one part of the country, they have a tendency to move oil and gas around to fill those needs. and if that happens, of course, all prices go up. the other thing you have to keep in mind, 70% of all oil production is offline in the gulf of mexico as of last night. that drives up the cost of oil when you have less oil higher gas prices. >> no pun intended here but isn't some of that oil already in the pipeline as it were and so how quickly will prices rise? it seems like this happens and prices rise overnight which is nonsensical to me. >> it wouldn't be if you understood what's going on down in the gulf of mexico right now. people are panic buying. wholesalers are panic buying. in the washington area, you may have only seen prices go up a penny or two. in the cash markets in those areas, they have gone up 30 cents a gallon overnight. the reason th

. >> isaac barreling across the gulf of mexico. it's expected to landfall this evening. >>> are the new levees in new orleans up to the task? >>> mitt romney and paul ryan arriving in tampa as the republican national convention gets into full swing. >>> and a dramatic landing for a helicopter during rush hour. instead of covering the story, the pilot and passenger actually became the story. >>> good morning, everyone. and paula faris. >> i'm john muller in for rob nelson. we begin with isaac, within striking distance of the gulf coast. >> isaac, to get more strength before blowing ashore this evening. brandi hitt is there as the levees are put to the test. good morning, brandi. >> reporter: good morning, paula. that's the big concern. but officials say they do believe the levees will hold up in the storm. right now, there isn't a lot happening as you can see. the winds are slowly picking up. but that's about to change as isaac comes ashore. the gulf coast is bracing for isaac. >> it brings great danger with it from floodwaters. >>

deepwater horizon drilling rig caused nearly five million barrels of crude to spill into the gulf of mexico. andrew schneider of kuhf, houston public radio, reports on the drilling industry's efforts to get gulf production back on track. >> reporter: these drilling rigs behind me are undergoing repair, waiting for orders that will send them out into the gulf of mexico. ose orders are only now returning to levels they reached before the deepwater horizon disaster. the april 20th macondo blowout back in 2010 triggered the biggest oil spill ever in u.s. waters. the obama administration imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling that lasted more than four months. even after the moratorium ended, permits were hard to come by. that hurt drilling everywhere in the gulf, shallow water as well as deep. jim noe is senior vice president and general counsel for hercules offshore. >> what used to take about 50 days from the initial time you submitted an application is now well over 200 days to get permits back. so there's still some challenges. >> reporter: those delays made many companies reluctant to

lori: more breaking news on isaac's impact on oil and gas operators in the gulf of mexico. reau of safety environmental enforcement reporting that 346 platforms, 346 in total, platforms have now been evacuated. that is 58% of the platforms in the gulf and 41 rigs have been evacuated. that is almost 54%. there is a look at rbob up nine cents. before that you saw nat-gas as well. we'll continue to follow the path of tropical storm isaac and its impact here on the fox business network. >>> apple's one billion dollar victory over samsung for patent infringement could mean higher cell phone phone costs. adam? >> several others using android operating systems that used software that might have infringed on the apple patents may have to enter into licensing agreements and that would be passed on to us as consumers. let's bring why i brought up the android operating system. people in the tech world are saying apple scored a big victory against samsung and its products. they are using google's android operating system. google issued a statement in regards to all of this. the court of

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storm center is working its way into the gulf of mexico. by wednesday it is a category 2 storm with a cone of uncertainty stretching all the way across not just parts of the florida panhandle but louisiana now. now new orleans is under a hurricane watch at this time which we didn't earlier on today. as we go through the end of the week, we are seeing changes in terms of other areas impacted by heavy rain. thursday and friday when the storm is inland, i think some of that will be beneficial. we have a hurricane warning that remains for south florida, including the keys. as we go all the way across westward we see those southeastern parishes of louisiana, coastal areas, including metropolitan new orleans, now under a hurricane watch because within 48 hours we could see hurricane force win, winds stronger than 74 miles per hour. if you saw the track, the intensity actually for those winds to be even more intense, possibly a category 2. now i want to show you the timelines. we can really break it down for you here on cnn so you know exactly what

behind me, a very angry and agitated gulf of mexico. in the gulf of mexico, the winds have kicked up a lot of waves and are crashing on in here. i talked to the port master here, he said a three-foot rise in the gulf of mexico waters here. the forecast for the storm surge is 6 to 12 feet, which should take us pretty close to the seawall here, but it should not overtop the wall or the beach boulevard that i'm standing in front of. but overall, it has had a significant impact on this entire coastline here of mississippi. a lot of people that know this area love this area for the beach and the casinos. there are 12 casinos up and down the mississippi coast. three are now closed because of the approach of hurricane isaac. there are still several others open, but the concern is now what's going to happen. i'm looking eastward toward biloxi and seeing fewer and fewer buildings because we are having one of the heavier rain bands come this way. the entire coastline of mississippi here eastward toward mobile is under a tornado watch. any time you

we are set up across the street from the gulf of mexico, because we know the storm surge forecast is a 6-12 foot storm surge. farther off to the right, that is the port of gulfport mississippi, completely evacuated tonight. they finished their preparations yesterday. that port completely demolished seven years ago because of katrina. they just reopened a year ago. all the cranes have been moves away. locals around here were rushing their preparations last night. so far this morning, the weather can be described as every now and then, a couple of light rain showers. more like a breezy day. we have not seen the heavy rain yet with isaac. we haven't seen the strong winds yet with isaac. again, as the sun comes up, weather goes downhill. again, this time tomorrow, could be dealing with the landfall of isaac. maybe a hurricane or tropical storm. either way, people around here, willie, are prepared for the worst. >> seven years ago feels like yesterday to a lot of people. paul goodloe at weather channel. let's swing it out to new york at the path and when it will make landfall. we do it wit

oil companies are not taking any chances evacuating platforms in the gulf of mexico.eatherbell.com, meteorologist joe tracking the storm. no matr where it goes, this is a region that's volatile anyway. do oil guys have reason to worry? do we have reason to worry about oil? >> it's a pick your poisen storm here because on sunday, it comes to a fork in the road where it has to decide go straight north over florida or back towards the gulf areas. we don't want to write off that option. the scary thing about the gulf option is bringing an intensifying storm through the florida keys into the northern, central gulf of mexico means it's a double whammy. hit the keys, south florida, and then you have all of that warm water, and this thing would go to a category three, four, or five. neil: you don't envision that? >> if this takes the western track, to me, there's nothing that would be in the way of stopping this. now -- neil: why? >> here's the thing. the thing put out in the weather bell forecast earlier this year was the central atlantic would be almost dormant. you saw wha