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A second storm detached itself from Hurricane Isaac and is moving up the Atlantic Coast. It dumped nearly eight inches of rain over South Carolina on Tuesday.

Isaac's core was expected to pass west of New Orleans with winds close to 80 mph and head for Baton Rouge, La. It was expected to gradually weaken. The storm made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River at 6:45 p.m. local time.

As Isaac comes ashore in Louisiana, its unrelenting winds and rains are punishing the parishes closest to the Gulf of Mexico. During Hurricane Katrina, Saint Bernard and Plaquemines were particularly hard hit.

The story of Hurricane Isaac will likely be about flooding. The storm is expected to dump many inches of rain across a wide swath of the country.

People along a wide swath of the Gulf of Mexico coastline are making preparations for Tropical Storm Isaac. The storm is headed toward New Orleans, and is scheduled to develop into a hurricane that could make landfall as early as Tuesday.

Isaac isn't expected to grow beyond a Category 1 hurricane and that's easing some concerns it could damage oil and gas refineries along the Gulf Coast. Still, several have shut down operations and will probably be off line for a few days. Depending on Isaac's severity, analysts say gasoline prices could go up by about 10 cents or so in the coming weeks.

The system is designed to withstand a storm this size, but this will be its first test since its previous incarnation was devastated by Katrina.

Republicans have been forced to delay a second-straight convention opening due to storms. And the GOP is hardly alone in thinking that it can look bad to go forward with a planned event when horrible news is unfolding elsewhere.

It's been seven years since Katrina and the failure of the city's levee system. It's been rebuilt at a cost of billions, but the job isn't quite finished.

Tropical Storm Isaac is over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday on its way toward New Orleans, where it's expected to hit seven years to the day since Katrina.