I was in Panama City Beach in 2014, the coast is literally lined with hotels for miles. I think they're going to very unprepared for this. Its not like other areas like around New Orleans where the terrain and prior history has made the locality very sensitive and aware to hurricanes.
The most laughable thing is, New Orleans is a good bit inland. You are about 80 miles from Grand Isle as the crow flies which is one of the small coastal areas at the very tip of Louisiana's gulf coast.
Pardon my French, but having lived in Louisiana briefly, you'd be mongooseing bonkers to go on holiday to the Gulf of Mexico in late August/early September, particularly to an island with minimal escape.
Theres an area of low pressure just west of the Cape Verde Islands I'm keeping an eye on just now. It has a 90% chance of formation within the next few days. It looks like travelling northwest in the direction of Florida, albeit probably still a couple of thousand miles from landfall, but I'd say thats our next area of interest.