New Orleans lashed on Katrina anniversary
Source: Agencies |
August 30, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HURRICANE Isaac lashed New Orleans as it approached the storied city yesterday morning exactly seven years after the devastating Katrina, stranding people in cars and homes as it pushed flood waters over defenses in one rural area.
The US National Hurricane Center warned that dangerous storm surges and flooding from heavy rain were expected to last into the night as Isaac crawled from the Gulf Coast over Louisiana after driving a wall of water nearly 3.3 meters high inland. The storm killed 24 in Haiti and five in the Dominican Republic over the weekend. Isaac, a lowest-category hurricane, still brought the threat of almost 0.6 meters of rain to a coastal region where many areas are under sea level.
Wind gusts of more than 96 kilometers per hour and sheets of rain raked the nearly empty streets of New Orleans, where more than 228 millimeters of rain had fallen by 7am.
The director of the US National Hurricane Center, Rick Knabb, reminded people that the first half of Isaac hadn't moved through the area yet. The hurricane was about 80 kilometers south-southwest of New Orleans.
The full picture of damage was not yet clear. "It's going to be frustrating," the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, said yesterday. "The response will start when conditions allow, not when the sun shines."
Tens of thousands told to leave
Issac was far less strong than Katrina, which left 1,800 dead but resulted in the widespread strengthening of the city's flood defenses. Still, tens of thousands of people in low-lying Louisiana and Mississippi had been told to leave before Isaac arrived.
Officials said New Orleans' flood protections system was holding up so far, but Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Rachel Rodi said the corps expected to be on "high alert" for the next 12 to 24 hours.
About two dozen people who stayed behind despite evacuation orders needed to be rescued after a storm surge topped a 29-kilometer stretch of flood wall in a thinly populated part of Plaquemines Parish. The levee is not part of New Orleans' defenses.
Authorities in armored vehicles saved a family after the roof was ripped off their house in Terrebonne Parish, a fishing village about 64 kilometers southwest of New Orleans, said Sheriff Jerry Larpenter. He said others had called wanting to be evacuated.
The storm also flooded beachfront roads before dawn in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Isaac's slow track meant the storm could dump up to 508 millimeters of rain in some areas, said Ken Graham, who is chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service facility in Slidell, Louisiana.
The US National Hurricane Center warned that dangerous storm surges and flooding from heavy rain were expected to last into the night as Isaac crawled from the Gulf Coast over Louisiana after driving a wall of water nearly 3.3 meters high inland. The storm killed 24 in Haiti and five in the Dominican Republic over the weekend. Isaac, a lowest-category hurricane, still brought the threat of almost 0.6 meters of rain to a coastal region where many areas are under sea level.
Wind gusts of more than 96 kilometers per hour and sheets of rain raked the nearly empty streets of New Orleans, where more than 228 millimeters of rain had fallen by 7am.
The director of the US National Hurricane Center, Rick Knabb, reminded people that the first half of Isaac hadn't moved through the area yet. The hurricane was about 80 kilometers south-southwest of New Orleans.
The full picture of damage was not yet clear. "It's going to be frustrating," the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, said yesterday. "The response will start when conditions allow, not when the sun shines."
Tens of thousands told to leave
Issac was far less strong than Katrina, which left 1,800 dead but resulted in the widespread strengthening of the city's flood defenses. Still, tens of thousands of people in low-lying Louisiana and Mississippi had been told to leave before Isaac arrived.
Officials said New Orleans' flood protections system was holding up so far, but Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Rachel Rodi said the corps expected to be on "high alert" for the next 12 to 24 hours.
About two dozen people who stayed behind despite evacuation orders needed to be rescued after a storm surge topped a 29-kilometer stretch of flood wall in a thinly populated part of Plaquemines Parish. The levee is not part of New Orleans' defenses.
Authorities in armored vehicles saved a family after the roof was ripped off their house in Terrebonne Parish, a fishing village about 64 kilometers southwest of New Orleans, said Sheriff Jerry Larpenter. He said others had called wanting to be evacuated.
The storm also flooded beachfront roads before dawn in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Isaac's slow track meant the storm could dump up to 508 millimeters of rain in some areas, said Ken Graham, who is chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service facility in Slidell, Louisiana.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
