Private levee near New Orleans in danger, official says
09/01/2008
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- A private levee south of New Orleans was in danger of failing Monday afternoon after a day of heavy rain and pounding storm surge from Hurricane Gustav, the parish president said.
Water was coming over the top of the levee near Caernarvon in Plaquemines Parish, about 20 miles down the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Parish President Bill Nungesser said.Although crews were working to keep the levee from failing, "it doesn't look like we're going to be successful," he said.The private levee holds back the Clearwater Canal, not the Mississippi River."The levee is really soft, so it could give way at any time," Nungesser said.He urged any parish residents who remained after mandatory evacuation orders -- he did not know how many did so -- to drive along the Mississippi levees northward to escape.Gustav came ashore in Louisiana on Monday as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph.The storm's eastern bands, which generally pack the most powerful winds, also hammered Mississippi as Gustav moved to the west of New Orleans.In Pass Christian, Mississippi, Gustav blew vinyl siding off homes and damaged the recently repaired small-boat harbor. At least four boats docked there were swept onto the harbor access road, police Chief John Dubuisson said.In Biloxi, Mississippi, iReporter Kevin Wise, who lives two blocks from the beach, said Gustav had pushed the Gulf waters into a highway about 100 yards from the normal shoreline."On the beach, it was blowing hard enough that you had to squat down to take a picture; it could pretty much throw you around," he said. Wise said he and his wife ignored mandatory evacuation orders for his area.Entergy, the largest provider of electric power in Louisiana, said that more than 700,000 homes and businesses were without power in the region, including at least 114,000 in New Orleans. Repair crews may not get out until Wednesday because of high winds, spokesman Phil Allison said.
At 4 p.m. CT, Gustav was a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.Winds were sending whitecaps over levees in New Orleans, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported no major problems.There were reports of water going over the Industrial Canal levee near a railroad bridge, said Chris Macaluso, a spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration. The Port of New Orleans will raise the bridge to ease pressure on the system, he said.The Industrial Canal levee failed during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, devastating the Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard ParishThe Federal Emergency Management Agency said two Navy boats, each about 350 feet long, that were being scrapped at a facility on the canal broke away from their moorings Monday. Mayor Ray Nagin said the ships, and a barge that broke loose from its moorings, were pinned against a wharf in the Industrial Canal."If they get loose and they start to bang around on some of those canal walls, we could have a major problem," he said.At least seven other barges had broken loose on the Mississippi River and were believed to have run aground on the West Bank, the Coast Guard reported.Gustav made landfall Monday morning near the coastal town of Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans.President Bush, visiting the Texas Emergency Operations Center in Austin, Texas, praised government relief efforts."The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina," he said."What I look for is to determine whether or not assets are in place to help, whether or not there's coordination and whether or not there's preparation for recovery," Bush said. "To that end, I feel good about this event."In total, almost 2 million residents evacuated the Louisiana coast, but some in New Orleans opted to brave the storm."It really didn't look as vicious as, obviously, Katrina did," Jack Bosma said.He said the wind scattered his back gate across his yard, but his power was on, and neighbors had been congregating on his porch."It's really, quite honestly, basically, just like a bad storm. It doesn't seem that drastic at all," he said.Megan Arseneaux, 19, said in an e-mail that phone service was spotty at her East Bank home, two blocks from the Mississippi River in Harahan, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans."My backyard is full of leaves and debris. The wind was very intense when I woke up around 6 a.m.," she said. "As I type this, the wind has actually picked up. The rain is very harsh too." There are concerns that if Gustav moves up the Mississippi River's estuaries, some levees may not hold, resulting in severe flooding. Although many levees have been repaired and heightened since Katrina struck in 2005, all of the work won't be completed until 2011, officials said.storm surge in Pointe a La Hache, Louisiana, about 40 miles southeast of New Orleans. Another 1 to 3 feet of surge could occur, the USGS said.Forecasters said Gustav could drench parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas in 6 to 12 inches of rain, with the possibility of 20 inches in isolated areas by Thursday.Property damage from Gustav could total $8 billion, just 25 percent of Sunday's estimate, according to a federally supported computer projection issued Monday morning.Forecasters warned Monday morning that Gustav could stall over Louisiana and northeast Texas for several days, which would "exacerbate the threat of heavy rains and inland flooding."Meanwhile, forecasters said Monday afternoon that Tropical Storm Hanna was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it passed through the Bahamas. At 5 p.m. ET, Hanna had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. The National Hurricane Center says Hanna could make landfall Friday near the Georgia/South Carolina border.And in the far eastern Atlantic, Tropical Storm Ike formed Monday with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
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