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.
List of storms that came close to or over New Orleans since 2005
Cindy 2005 CAT1
Katrina 2005 CAT3
Gustav 2008 CAT2
Isaac 2012 CAT1
Nate 2017 CAT1
Zeta 2020 CAT3
The forecast track looks almost identical to Gustav 2008.
Models keep speeding up the landfall time. How strong and organized it is when it enters the gulf will be key to how strong it is at landfall.
If it's a 993mb borderline cat1 entering the gulf it will have enough time to become a major before LA. If it's still a 1005mb messy TS it will probably won't