[h=3]By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN, MIKE ESTERL and DANIEL GILBERT[/h]
Associated PressA sheriff's vehicle sits in flood waters north of LaPlace, La., on Thursday.
Isaac continued to drench southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi on its slow march north, flooding neighborhoods outside New Orleans, forcing thousands to evacuate and killing at least one person.
Mississippi officials were executing a controlled breach of a dam at Percy Quinn State Park, near McComb, Miss., Thursday afternoon to prevent it from failing. Local authorities in Louisiana ordered the mandatory evacuation of as many as 60,000 people downriver as a precaution against potential flooding.
"They have done a controlled breach, and are pumping water over the top of the dam to try to relieve pressure" from Isaac's heavy rains, said Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Fire trucks were also pumping water out of the lake behind the dam and into forest area next to it, he said.
The dam feeds into the Tangipahoa River, which flows south and along the length of Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish, northwest of New Orleans. Mr. Flynn said workers discovered Thursday morning that the dam had developed two bulges, and sandbagged the areas. They were closely monitoring the situation.
Mississippi officials didn't believe the amount of water they were releasing will raise levels enough to cause substantial flooding, Mr. Flynn said. "The numbers we've been running would not send that much water down," he said, adding that Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has been in touch with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal about the dam.
But Louisiana officials, already grappling with flooding and rescue missions elsewhere in the state, were taking no chances. Parish officials ordered evacuations on one mile on either side of the river, Mr. Jindal said.
The Tangipahoa River was already swollen from Isaac's heavy rain, and a dam failure could raise it about six feet, bringing its water level to 17 feet—close to levels it reached in floods in 1983 and 1990, when bridges were washed out, he said.
Mr. Jindal said 200 buses have been sent to the parish to help with the evacuation. In Mississippi, about 19 to 20 homes were potentially affected in the rural area along which the river flows, Mr. Flynn said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Louisiana's St. Tammany Parish, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, called Thursday morning for residents to evacuate from some neighborhoods in the city of Slidell amid flooding concerns.
The parish said that water was entering parts of Slidell as Bayou Bonfouca tops railroad tracks, which act as a levee for the city.
Authorities also reported Wednesday that a levee at Port Louis/Guste Island west of Slidell broke, flooding one subdivision, although there were no reports of fatalities.
In LaPlace, La., a small city off Lake Ponchartrain, Tracey Echard woke overnight to see water moving swiftly up the yard of the house she shares with her fiancé and his mother, Charlene Guana. The floodwaters seeping into her house reached six inches by 3 a.m. Thursday, when the National Guard showed up to evacuate them in a rescue boat.
"Everybody's always saying, 'This never happens in LaPlace, this never happens in LaPlace.' Then, all of a sudden, it happened," said Ms. Echard, 44 years old, who works as a manager at a nearby Walmart.
Isaac's tail washed through LaPlace, about 30 miles west of New Orleans, and the water continued to rise. Residents reported chest-high water in some streets, as emergency officials fanned out to evacuate those still stranded.
Officials said Thursday they had evacuated more than 3,200 residents in Louisiana's St. John the Baptist Parish, which encompasses LaPlace, sending them to shelters in Shreveport and Alexandria. Others evacuated on their own.
Several major traffic arteries around St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes were closed because of the lingering floodwaters, the Associated Press reported.
[h=3]Hurricane Tracker[/h]Track the latest Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms, and look back over past seasons.
Two or three tornadoes touched down on the Mississippi coast, said Bob Wagner, a meteorologist for the New Orleans/Baton Rouge office of the National Weather Service, whose region includes coastal Mississippi.
A tornado watch was in effect until late afternoon Thursday for six Mississippi counties and three southeast Louisiana parishes. "It's not unusual to have tornadoes in the spiral bands of a hurricane. It doesn't happen with every one, but it does happen enough that it is not a surprise," Mr. Wagner said.
One man, a tow truck driver, was killed when a tree hit his truck in Picayune, Miss., said Mr. Flynn of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Eric Gay/Associated PressA sheriff's vehicle sat in flood waters caused by Isaac in LaPlace, La., Thursday.
Nearly half of Louisiana was without power. The Public Service Commission said 901,000 homes and businesses around the state—about 47% of all customers—were without power Thursday, the AP reported. In Mississippi, utility companies said they were working to restore power to more than 150,000 customers in south and central parts of the state.
However, the strongest part of the storm largely bypassed New Orleans, which was devastated precisely seven years ago by Hurricane Katrina.
Officials said a federally funded system of levees, pumps and floodgates around New Orleans that were built up after Katrina defended the city well against Isaac, which was downgraded to a tropical storm from a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday afternoon.
Associated PressWaveland, Miss., residents wade through storm waters.
Despite the threat of flooding in the city from the rain, the federal levees weren't "at risk of failure," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
"We all recognize the irony that today is the seventh anniversary of Katrina," Mr. Landrieu said at a news conference on Wednesday, clad in a black T-shirt and cargo pants. "It has forever scarred our lives, changed our lives and redirected the way we do many, many things."
Indeed, the flooded streets and rooftop rescues of people and pets so close to the city in nearby Plaquemines Parish proved eerie reminders of the hellish days of Katrina.
On Wednesday, a storm surge overtopped a levee in Plaquemines Parish, a rural area southwest of New Orleans with about 25,000 residents, which bore the brunt of Isaac's fury. The surge filled up a neighborhood with as much as 12 feet of water. More than 100 people had to be rescued, some of whom had been stranded in their attics or on their roofs.
Gulf Coast oil and gas companies emerged Thursday to assess damages and begin restaffing of evacuated refineries and offshore platforms. Analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said that energy markets weren't expecting "lasting disruptions," but they are "looking for confirmation of this" from oil and gas companies. Nearly 95% of Gulf oil production was shut in Wednesday due to the storm.
Isaac was expected to cause insured losses of as much as $1.5 billion onshore, according to disaster-modeling company Eqecat. The loss is modest relative to past storms; Katrina's $41.1 billion price tag is the largest insured loss in U.S. history. Losses from Hurricane Gustav, which struck in 2008 as a Category 2 storm, were around $2 billion.
Retailers specializing in ice, building materials and other supplies prepared to get up and running as soon as Isaac passed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. stocked stores with emergency shipments of generators, tarps, flashlights, bug repellent and mold treatments.
Waffle House Inc. sent a convoy of six RVs and trucks to the Gulf Coast Wednesday, hauling supplies, fuel tanks and generators to support the chain's 100 restaurants in the region. The privately held company has been described as a model for emergency response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which operates on what FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate calls a "Waffle House Index." Its restaurants are among the first to reopen after storms pass.
—Devlin Barrett, Shelly Banjo, Valerie Bauerlein, Erik Holm, Ben Lefebvre, Jennifer Levitz, Cameron McWhirter and Alison Sider contributed to this article.Write to Daniel Gilbert at [email protected], Timothy W. Martin at [email protected] and Mike Esterl at [email protected]
Associated PressA sheriff's vehicle sits in flood waters north of LaPlace, La., on Thursday.
Isaac continued to drench southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi on its slow march north, flooding neighborhoods outside New Orleans, forcing thousands to evacuate and killing at least one person.
Mississippi officials were executing a controlled breach of a dam at Percy Quinn State Park, near McComb, Miss., Thursday afternoon to prevent it from failing. Local authorities in Louisiana ordered the mandatory evacuation of as many as 60,000 people downriver as a precaution against potential flooding.
"They have done a controlled breach, and are pumping water over the top of the dam to try to relieve pressure" from Isaac's heavy rains, said Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Fire trucks were also pumping water out of the lake behind the dam and into forest area next to it, he said.
The dam feeds into the Tangipahoa River, which flows south and along the length of Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish, northwest of New Orleans. Mr. Flynn said workers discovered Thursday morning that the dam had developed two bulges, and sandbagged the areas. They were closely monitoring the situation.
Mississippi officials didn't believe the amount of water they were releasing will raise levels enough to cause substantial flooding, Mr. Flynn said. "The numbers we've been running would not send that much water down," he said, adding that Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has been in touch with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal about the dam.
But Louisiana officials, already grappling with flooding and rescue missions elsewhere in the state, were taking no chances. Parish officials ordered evacuations on one mile on either side of the river, Mr. Jindal said.
The Tangipahoa River was already swollen from Isaac's heavy rain, and a dam failure could raise it about six feet, bringing its water level to 17 feet—close to levels it reached in floods in 1983 and 1990, when bridges were washed out, he said.
Mr. Jindal said 200 buses have been sent to the parish to help with the evacuation. In Mississippi, about 19 to 20 homes were potentially affected in the rural area along which the river flows, Mr. Flynn said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Louisiana's St. Tammany Parish, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, called Thursday morning for residents to evacuate from some neighborhoods in the city of Slidell amid flooding concerns.
The parish said that water was entering parts of Slidell as Bayou Bonfouca tops railroad tracks, which act as a levee for the city.
Authorities also reported Wednesday that a levee at Port Louis/Guste Island west of Slidell broke, flooding one subdivision, although there were no reports of fatalities.
In LaPlace, La., a small city off Lake Ponchartrain, Tracey Echard woke overnight to see water moving swiftly up the yard of the house she shares with her fiancé and his mother, Charlene Guana. The floodwaters seeping into her house reached six inches by 3 a.m. Thursday, when the National Guard showed up to evacuate them in a rescue boat.
"Everybody's always saying, 'This never happens in LaPlace, this never happens in LaPlace.' Then, all of a sudden, it happened," said Ms. Echard, 44 years old, who works as a manager at a nearby Walmart.
Isaac's tail washed through LaPlace, about 30 miles west of New Orleans, and the water continued to rise. Residents reported chest-high water in some streets, as emergency officials fanned out to evacuate those still stranded.
Officials said Thursday they had evacuated more than 3,200 residents in Louisiana's St. John the Baptist Parish, which encompasses LaPlace, sending them to shelters in Shreveport and Alexandria. Others evacuated on their own.
Several major traffic arteries around St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany parishes were closed because of the lingering floodwaters, the Associated Press reported.
[h=3]Hurricane Tracker[/h]Track the latest Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms, and look back over past seasons.
Two or three tornadoes touched down on the Mississippi coast, said Bob Wagner, a meteorologist for the New Orleans/Baton Rouge office of the National Weather Service, whose region includes coastal Mississippi.
A tornado watch was in effect until late afternoon Thursday for six Mississippi counties and three southeast Louisiana parishes. "It's not unusual to have tornadoes in the spiral bands of a hurricane. It doesn't happen with every one, but it does happen enough that it is not a surprise," Mr. Wagner said.
One man, a tow truck driver, was killed when a tree hit his truck in Picayune, Miss., said Mr. Flynn of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Eric Gay/Associated PressA sheriff's vehicle sat in flood waters caused by Isaac in LaPlace, La., Thursday.
Nearly half of Louisiana was without power. The Public Service Commission said 901,000 homes and businesses around the state—about 47% of all customers—were without power Thursday, the AP reported. In Mississippi, utility companies said they were working to restore power to more than 150,000 customers in south and central parts of the state.
However, the strongest part of the storm largely bypassed New Orleans, which was devastated precisely seven years ago by Hurricane Katrina.
Officials said a federally funded system of levees, pumps and floodgates around New Orleans that were built up after Katrina defended the city well against Isaac, which was downgraded to a tropical storm from a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday afternoon.
Associated PressWaveland, Miss., residents wade through storm waters.
Despite the threat of flooding in the city from the rain, the federal levees weren't "at risk of failure," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
"We all recognize the irony that today is the seventh anniversary of Katrina," Mr. Landrieu said at a news conference on Wednesday, clad in a black T-shirt and cargo pants. "It has forever scarred our lives, changed our lives and redirected the way we do many, many things."
Indeed, the flooded streets and rooftop rescues of people and pets so close to the city in nearby Plaquemines Parish proved eerie reminders of the hellish days of Katrina.
On Wednesday, a storm surge overtopped a levee in Plaquemines Parish, a rural area southwest of New Orleans with about 25,000 residents, which bore the brunt of Isaac's fury. The surge filled up a neighborhood with as much as 12 feet of water. More than 100 people had to be rescued, some of whom had been stranded in their attics or on their roofs.
Gulf Coast oil and gas companies emerged Thursday to assess damages and begin restaffing of evacuated refineries and offshore platforms. Analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said that energy markets weren't expecting "lasting disruptions," but they are "looking for confirmation of this" from oil and gas companies. Nearly 95% of Gulf oil production was shut in Wednesday due to the storm.
Isaac was expected to cause insured losses of as much as $1.5 billion onshore, according to disaster-modeling company Eqecat. The loss is modest relative to past storms; Katrina's $41.1 billion price tag is the largest insured loss in U.S. history. Losses from Hurricane Gustav, which struck in 2008 as a Category 2 storm, were around $2 billion.
Retailers specializing in ice, building materials and other supplies prepared to get up and running as soon as Isaac passed. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. stocked stores with emergency shipments of generators, tarps, flashlights, bug repellent and mold treatments.
Waffle House Inc. sent a convoy of six RVs and trucks to the Gulf Coast Wednesday, hauling supplies, fuel tanks and generators to support the chain's 100 restaurants in the region. The privately held company has been described as a model for emergency response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which operates on what FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate calls a "Waffle House Index." Its restaurants are among the first to reopen after storms pass.
—Devlin Barrett, Shelly Banjo, Valerie Bauerlein, Erik Holm, Ben Lefebvre, Jennifer Levitz, Cameron McWhirter and Alison Sider contributed to this article.Write to Daniel Gilbert at [email protected], Timothy W. Martin at [email protected] and Mike Esterl at [email protected]