Alexandria is about 220 miles away from Houston, Texas, and according to CNN, the storm spans across 550 miles. We’re still getting hit by the outer-bands of the storm. This is all worth noting, because, as Mayor Roy pointed out early yesterday morning, the moisture that Gustav left behind creates a very precarious situation for those of us in Central Louisiana.
CenLamar 
It’s very likely that the dead zone in the gulf is fueling these storms, the solubility of oxygen decreases as temperature increases, and also decreases as salinity increases. Once a hurricane enters these regions of increased temp’s they grow even bigger before making land along the coast. The dead zone is created when waste from the missisippi river(farm run off, sewage, google it) flows into the gulf starving the ocean of oxygen in certain regions killing sea life with increased temperatures.