I really wish SE LA maps would agree on what's land and what's water. Maybe Just declare the whole thing swamp?
Must have been almost impossible to navigate even with GPS.
There's an outer eyewall trying to form on radar. If you look closely you can see it on recon data. It's way too late for it to kick in prior to landfall though.
The open eye is misleading. There's a robust circular CDO on IR which is probably more important than the exact eye shape, which changes every 10 minutes.
Approach from the southeast, make a sharp 90 degree turn right over the city and exits to the northeast.
A track from the south that goes right over the eastern part of the city would be a close second though.
The forecast track for Ida is far from a worst case scenario for New Orleans. I think the new Levee system assuming it was built properly can handle the surge.
One good thing about the west track is that winds won't come out of the north and slam lake Pontchartrain into the city.