Hurricane Isaac 2012

 

Hurricane Isaac 2012

According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm's center moved over land in Plaquemines Parish at 6:45 p.m. (7:45 p.m. ET) -- one day before the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which left nearly 1,800 dead and caused billions of dollars worth of damage along the Gulf Coast.

The hurricane will be the first test of the $14.5 billion, 133-mile ring of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps put in place after Hurricane Katrina by the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that built the defenses that failed this city catastrophically in 2005.

By all accounts, this storm is nowhere near as powerful as Katrina was, but its breadth is potentially wider, with pounding rains and surging waves expected from east of Morgan City, La., to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including New Orleans.

Isaac struck the Gulf Coast last week, dumping heavy rain across southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and pushing in storm surge that led to widespread flooding. Thousands of homes were damaged in Louisiana, and many were left without power for days. It then moved inland across Arkansas and through the Midwest before coming back down over the Gulf.

It was a Category 1 hurricane as it came ashore, and the National Hurricane Center warned of "strong winds and a dangerous storm surge occurring along the northern Gulf Coast."

Isaac, a massive and slow-moving storm, reached the coastline just a day short of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Isaac's path is similar to Katrina's and the anniversary has created "a high level of anxiety."

"We don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a Category 1 storm that can kill you," Landrieu said. He urged people to avoid streets likely to flood.

"One of the things that's concerning about this storm is most of its major activity is occurring at night, which makes it a little more difficult to respond to," Landrieu said.

Sources:
NYTimes.com
Telegraph
huffingtonpost
guardian.co.uk
ABC News
CNN.com
The Raw Story