Updated 5:45 a.m. ET
(CBS/AP) NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Isaac was beginning to move inland in southeast Louisiana before dawn Wednesday on a slow, drenching slog toward New Orleans, seven years to the day after the much stronger Katrina hit the city.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac remained a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, but was expected to weaken over the next 48 hours as it heads north over land. Isaac's center was forecast to pass over Louisiana for two days and head into southern Arkansas early Friday.
Isaac's winds and sheets of rain were whipping through nearly empty streets in New Orleans while, in neighboring Mississippi, the storm pushed Gulf water over sections of the main beachfront highway that runs the length of the state's shore.
Ryan Bernie, a spokesman for the city of New Orleans, said the storm had caused only some minor street flooding before dawn and felled trees, but had left roughly 125,000 customers in the city without power.
Isaac came ashore Tuesday night near the mouth of the Mississippi River, then was nearly stationary for several hours over the sparsely populated neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico.
It appeared headed for New Orleans, 70 miles to the northwest, on the seventh anniversary of Katrina. At 5 a.m. ET, Isaac was 60 miles south-southwest of New Orleans and plodding along toward the west-northwest at 8 mph, the hurricane center said.
One of the main concerns along the shoreline was storm surge, which occurs when hurricane winds raise sea levels off the coast, causing flooding on land. A surge of 10.3 feet was reported at Shell Beach, La. late Tuesday, while a surge of 6.7 feet was reported in Waveland, Miss., the Hurricane Center said.
Elsewhere in Mississippi, the main beachfront highway, U.S. 90, was closed in sections by storm surge flooding. At one spot in Biloxi, a foot of water covered the highway for a couple of blocks, and it looked like more was coming in with high tide, around 9:30 a.m.
The storm drew intense scrutiny because of its timing — just before the anniversary of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans, while the first major speeches of the Republican National Convention went on in Tampa, Fla., already delayed and tempered by the storm.
While many residents stayed put, evacuations were ordered in low-lying areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, where officials closed 12 shorefront casinos.
Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the Hurricane Center, said Isaac's core would pass west of New Orleans with winds close to 80 mph and head for Baton Rouge.
Hurricane Isaac makes landfall in Louisiana
Obama on Isaac: "Now is not the time to tempt fate"
Isaac could test Gulf Coast building standards
WFOR Miami's interactive storm tracker
"On this course, the hurricane will gradually weaken," Rappaport said Tuesday night from the Miami-based center. He said gusts could reach about 100 mph at times, especially at higher elevations, which could damage high-rise buildings in New Orleans.
As Isaac neared the city, there was little fear or panic. New Orleans was calmly waiting out the storm, which offered one of the first tests of the city's levee system, bolstered after the catastrophic failures during Hurricane Katrina. The upgraded system weathered Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
With the city's airport closed, tourists retreated to hotels and most denizens of a coastline that has witnessed countless hurricanes decided to ride out the storm.
"Isaac is the son of Abraham," said Margaret Thomas, who was trapped for a week in her home in New Orleans' Broadmoor neighborhood by Katrina's floodwaters, yet chose to stay put this time. "It's a special name that means 'God will protect us."'
Officials, chastened by memories and experience, advised caution.
"We don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a Category 1 storm that can kill you," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, urging people to use common sense and to stay off any streets that may flood.
Tens of thousands of people were told to leave low-lying areas, including 700 patients of Louisiana nursing homes, but officials decided not to call for mass evacuations like those that preceded Katrina, which packed 135 mph winds in 2005.
"I feel safe," said Pamela Young, who settled in to her home in the Lower 9th Ward — a neighborhood devastated by Katrina — with dog Princess and her television. "Everybody's talking `going, going,' but the thing is, when you go, there's no telling what will happen. The storm isn't going to just hit here."
Young, who lives in a new, two-story home built to replace the one destroyed by Katrina, said she wasn't worried about the levees.
"If the wind isn't too rough, I can stay right here," she said, tapping on her wooden living room coffee table. "If the water comes up, I can go upstairs."
While far less powerful than Katrina, Isaac posed similar political challenges, a reminder of how the storm seven years ago became a symbol of government ignorance and ineptitude.
Political fallout was already simmering. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who canceled his trip to the convention, said the Obama administration's disaster declaration fell short of the federal help he had requested, and asked for a promise to be reimbursed for storm preparation costs.
"We learned from past experiences, you can't just wait. You've got to push the federal bureaucracy," Jindal said.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said such requests would be addressed after the storm.
President Obama promised that Americans will help each other recover, "no matter what this storm brings."
"When disaster strikes, we're not Democrats or Republicans first, we are Americans first," Obama said at a campaign rally at Iowa State University. "We're one family. We help our neighbors in need."
In Tampa, the storm's landfall did not appear to affect prime-time coverage or the Republican National Convention speeches. Ann Romney, the Republican nominee's wife, mentioned it briefly in her remarks Tuesday night.
"Just so you all know, the hurricane has hit landfall and I think we should take this moment and recognize that fellow Americans are in its path and just hope and pray that all remain safe and no life is lost and no property is lost," she told the crowd.
Outside, though, the streets of downtown Tampa were eerily deserted, a result of nasty weather from Isaac's outer bands, tight security that blocked off streets and a delay in convention events because of fears the storm might target that side of the Gulf.
While politicians from both parties were careful to show their concern, Gulf residents and visitors tried to make the best of the situation on the ground.
In New Orleans' French Quarter, Hyatt hotel employee Nazareth Joseph braced for a busy week and fat overtime paychecks. Joseph said he was trapped in the city for several days after Katrina and helped neighbors escape the floodwaters.
"We made it through Katrina; we can definitely make it through this. It's going to take a lot more to run me. I know how to survive," he said.
Maureen McDonald, of Long Beach, Ind., strolled the French Quarter on her 80th birthday wearing a poncho, accompanied by family who traveled from three different cities to meet her in New Orleans to celebrate.
"The storm hasn't slowed us down. We're having the best time," she said.
But farther east along the Gulf, veterans of past hurricanes made sure to take precautions.
At a highway rest stop along Alabama's I-10, Bonnie Schertler, 54, of Waveland, Miss., said she left her coastal home for her father's place in Alabama "because of the 'coulds."'
"I just feel like the storm may stay for a few days and that wind might just pound and pound and pound and pound," said Schertler, whose former home in Waveland was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. A slow storm is more dangerous, she said, "'cause it can knock down just virtually everything if it just hovers forever."
Local officials, who imposed curfews in Mississippi's Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties. And in Theodore, Ala., 148 people took refuge in a shelter at the town's high school by midday Tuesday, with minds focused as much on the past as on the present storm.
Charlotte McCrary, 41, at the shelter with husband, Bryan, and their two sons, 3-year-old Tristan and 1-year-old Gabriel, recalled the year she spent living in a FEMA trailer after Katrina destroyed her home.
Seven years later, the storm reminds her that she still hasn't gotten back to same place.
"I think what it is," Bryan McCrary said, "is it brings back a lot of bad memories."
(CBS/AP) NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Isaac was beginning to move inland in southeast Louisiana before dawn Wednesday on a slow, drenching slog toward New Orleans, seven years to the day after the much stronger Katrina hit the city.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac remained a Category 1 storm with top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, but was expected to weaken over the next 48 hours as it heads north over land. Isaac's center was forecast to pass over Louisiana for two days and head into southern Arkansas early Friday.
Isaac's winds and sheets of rain were whipping through nearly empty streets in New Orleans while, in neighboring Mississippi, the storm pushed Gulf water over sections of the main beachfront highway that runs the length of the state's shore.
Ryan Bernie, a spokesman for the city of New Orleans, said the storm had caused only some minor street flooding before dawn and felled trees, but had left roughly 125,000 customers in the city without power.
Isaac came ashore Tuesday night near the mouth of the Mississippi River, then was nearly stationary for several hours over the sparsely populated neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico.
It appeared headed for New Orleans, 70 miles to the northwest, on the seventh anniversary of Katrina. At 5 a.m. ET, Isaac was 60 miles south-southwest of New Orleans and plodding along toward the west-northwest at 8 mph, the hurricane center said.
One of the main concerns along the shoreline was storm surge, which occurs when hurricane winds raise sea levels off the coast, causing flooding on land. A surge of 10.3 feet was reported at Shell Beach, La. late Tuesday, while a surge of 6.7 feet was reported in Waveland, Miss., the Hurricane Center said.
Elsewhere in Mississippi, the main beachfront highway, U.S. 90, was closed in sections by storm surge flooding. At one spot in Biloxi, a foot of water covered the highway for a couple of blocks, and it looked like more was coming in with high tide, around 9:30 a.m.
The storm drew intense scrutiny because of its timing — just before the anniversary of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans, while the first major speeches of the Republican National Convention went on in Tampa, Fla., already delayed and tempered by the storm.
While many residents stayed put, evacuations were ordered in low-lying areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, where officials closed 12 shorefront casinos.
Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the Hurricane Center, said Isaac's core would pass west of New Orleans with winds close to 80 mph and head for Baton Rouge.
Hurricane Isaac makes landfall in Louisiana
Obama on Isaac: "Now is not the time to tempt fate"
Isaac could test Gulf Coast building standards
WFOR Miami's interactive storm tracker
"On this course, the hurricane will gradually weaken," Rappaport said Tuesday night from the Miami-based center. He said gusts could reach about 100 mph at times, especially at higher elevations, which could damage high-rise buildings in New Orleans.
As Isaac neared the city, there was little fear or panic. New Orleans was calmly waiting out the storm, which offered one of the first tests of the city's levee system, bolstered after the catastrophic failures during Hurricane Katrina. The upgraded system weathered Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
With the city's airport closed, tourists retreated to hotels and most denizens of a coastline that has witnessed countless hurricanes decided to ride out the storm.
"Isaac is the son of Abraham," said Margaret Thomas, who was trapped for a week in her home in New Orleans' Broadmoor neighborhood by Katrina's floodwaters, yet chose to stay put this time. "It's a special name that means 'God will protect us."'
Officials, chastened by memories and experience, advised caution.
"We don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a Category 1 storm that can kill you," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, urging people to use common sense and to stay off any streets that may flood.
Tens of thousands of people were told to leave low-lying areas, including 700 patients of Louisiana nursing homes, but officials decided not to call for mass evacuations like those that preceded Katrina, which packed 135 mph winds in 2005.
"I feel safe," said Pamela Young, who settled in to her home in the Lower 9th Ward — a neighborhood devastated by Katrina — with dog Princess and her television. "Everybody's talking `going, going,' but the thing is, when you go, there's no telling what will happen. The storm isn't going to just hit here."
Young, who lives in a new, two-story home built to replace the one destroyed by Katrina, said she wasn't worried about the levees.
"If the wind isn't too rough, I can stay right here," she said, tapping on her wooden living room coffee table. "If the water comes up, I can go upstairs."
While far less powerful than Katrina, Isaac posed similar political challenges, a reminder of how the storm seven years ago became a symbol of government ignorance and ineptitude.
Political fallout was already simmering. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who canceled his trip to the convention, said the Obama administration's disaster declaration fell short of the federal help he had requested, and asked for a promise to be reimbursed for storm preparation costs.
"We learned from past experiences, you can't just wait. You've got to push the federal bureaucracy," Jindal said.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said such requests would be addressed after the storm.
President Obama promised that Americans will help each other recover, "no matter what this storm brings."
"When disaster strikes, we're not Democrats or Republicans first, we are Americans first," Obama said at a campaign rally at Iowa State University. "We're one family. We help our neighbors in need."
In Tampa, the storm's landfall did not appear to affect prime-time coverage or the Republican National Convention speeches. Ann Romney, the Republican nominee's wife, mentioned it briefly in her remarks Tuesday night.
"Just so you all know, the hurricane has hit landfall and I think we should take this moment and recognize that fellow Americans are in its path and just hope and pray that all remain safe and no life is lost and no property is lost," she told the crowd.
Outside, though, the streets of downtown Tampa were eerily deserted, a result of nasty weather from Isaac's outer bands, tight security that blocked off streets and a delay in convention events because of fears the storm might target that side of the Gulf.
While politicians from both parties were careful to show their concern, Gulf residents and visitors tried to make the best of the situation on the ground.
In New Orleans' French Quarter, Hyatt hotel employee Nazareth Joseph braced for a busy week and fat overtime paychecks. Joseph said he was trapped in the city for several days after Katrina and helped neighbors escape the floodwaters.
"We made it through Katrina; we can definitely make it through this. It's going to take a lot more to run me. I know how to survive," he said.
Maureen McDonald, of Long Beach, Ind., strolled the French Quarter on her 80th birthday wearing a poncho, accompanied by family who traveled from three different cities to meet her in New Orleans to celebrate.
"The storm hasn't slowed us down. We're having the best time," she said.
But farther east along the Gulf, veterans of past hurricanes made sure to take precautions.
At a highway rest stop along Alabama's I-10, Bonnie Schertler, 54, of Waveland, Miss., said she left her coastal home for her father's place in Alabama "because of the 'coulds."'
"I just feel like the storm may stay for a few days and that wind might just pound and pound and pound and pound," said Schertler, whose former home in Waveland was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. A slow storm is more dangerous, she said, "'cause it can knock down just virtually everything if it just hovers forever."
Local officials, who imposed curfews in Mississippi's Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties. And in Theodore, Ala., 148 people took refuge in a shelter at the town's high school by midday Tuesday, with minds focused as much on the past as on the present storm.
Charlotte McCrary, 41, at the shelter with husband, Bryan, and their two sons, 3-year-old Tristan and 1-year-old Gabriel, recalled the year she spent living in a FEMA trailer after Katrina destroyed her home.
Seven years later, the storm reminds her that she still hasn't gotten back to same place.
"I think what it is," Bryan McCrary said, "is it brings back a lot of bad memories."