MCCOMB, Miss. – Isaac dumped unrelenting rain and flooded areas around New Orleans on Thursday as people who thought they could ride out a lowest-category hurricane faced quickly rising waters. Hundreds of homes were swamped, about 500 people had to be rescued and half of Louisiana was without power. At least two people were killed.
New Orleans itself was protected by newly fortified flood defences put in place after the devastating Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.
“Hopefully, as far as the city of New Orleans is concerned, the worst is behind us,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
But residents outside the city were scrambling as the slow-moving Isaac, now a tropical storm, kept dumping rain. Along the shores of Lake Ponchartrain just north of New Orleans, officials sent scores of vehicles to help evacuate about 3,000 people.
Louisiana officials ordered evacuations downstream along the sparsely populated Tangipahoa River as a dam threatened to fail and send water to neighbouring Mississippi, which had its own flooding. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said officials would release water at the dam.
The floodwaters “were shockingly fast-rising, from what I understand from talking to people,” Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne said. “It caught everybody by surprise.”
Get breaking National news
Resident David Newman was frustrated the U.S. government spent billions reinforcing flood defences for New Orleans after Katrina, and now he had the water.
“The water’s got to go somewhere,” he said. “It’s going to find the weakest link, and with the wind directions, we was ground zero.”
President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in both states, according to a statement from the White House, freeing up federal aid for affected areas.
A man was killed Thursday morning when a tree fell on his truck in Mississippi. In Louisiana, a man died after falling from a tree while helping friends move a vehicle ahead of the storm.
Louisiana’s Public Service Commission said 901,000 homes and businesses were without power. Utility company Entergy said that included about 157,000 in New Orleans.
“People have their generators, because they thought the power would go out, but no one expected the water,” said Richard Musatchia, who was evacuated by a neighbour in a boat from his home in LaPlace, northwest of the city. “I was blindsided, nobody expected this.”
Forecasters expected Isaac to move farther inland over the next several days, dumping rain on drought-stricken states across the nation’s midsection before finally breaking up over the weekend.
In New Orleans, the storm cancelled remembrance ceremonies for those among the 1,800 killed by Katrina.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Brian Schwaner and Stacy Plaisance in New Orleans; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge; Kevin McGill in Houma; Holbrook Mohr in Waveland and Pass Christian, Mississippi; and Jeff Amy in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.
Comments