Residents evacuate their flooded neighborhood, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, in LaPlace, La. (Eric Gay/AP Photo)
September 1, 2012
By: Deborah Dupre
The National Weather Service issued a warning that a “dam failure” in the Louisiana-Mississippi border area might occur and flooding is “expected on the Tangipahoa River near Percy Quin park,” prompting a mandatory evacuation of approximately 50,000 more people and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announcing the dam would be intentionally breached to prevent it from breaking.
“Until it’s safe, we don’t want them to go home. We want them to get clear,” Burgess said. He said he did not yet know when the mandatory evacuation order could be lifted.
Nevertheless, most evacuees who were in shelters soon after the evacuation was ordered, are no longer in those shelters.
Four deaths have been attributed to Isaac [now seven].
“Unfortunately, I believe we will find more bodies, ” Plaquemines County Coroner’s chief investigator John Marie told NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez.
The National Hurricane Center said Friday, “Even though Isaac is no longer a tropical storm, life threatening hazards from storm surge, inland flooding and tornadoes are still occurring.”
“Evacuate out of an abundance of caution,” pleaded Gov. Jindal to people in the Louisiana-Mississippi southern border area. “Hopefully, it’ll turn out the dam doesn’t breach. If there’s a breach several hours from now, we wouldn’t want people to be moved in the middle of the night.”
Hundreds were evacuated in darkness of night as new areas in southern Louisiana flooded while Isaac crawled north.
Isaac evacuees.
Louisiana state officials say if the dam burst, it would raise water levels to 17 feet, almost equal to the area’s two worst floods on record, one in 1983.
Isaac continues to spin off life-threatening weather including storm surges, inland flooding from torrential rain and potential tornadoes.
Flooding possibility in areas where high waters have never been experienced, even without dam problems, is something many residents and public officials in the area might have not considered, despite scientists warning this would happen due to Louisiana’s wetland erosion changing its landscape.
“Amid urgent calls for residents to evacuate and dire warnings from Louisiana officials, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, who visited Tangipahoa Parish on Thursday, Mississippi officials began diverting water from the 450-to 500-acre lake through an emergency spillway,” reports The Times Picayune.
“That effort had dropped the water level below emergency levels by Friday evening, said Richard Harrell of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Though Harrell said the dam was in serious condition, it was not in danger of imminent collapse.”
Controlled releases of water from the dam are expected to flood about 20 homes in Mississippi.
“I’m afraid they’re getting complacent and saying, ‘Since nothing’s happened yet, I’m going home,'” Burgess said. “I was hoping they would stay with us and give us a few days to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
More than 3,000 people were rescued during the week from quickly rising waters.
The storm pushed water over an 18-mile levee, placing so much pressure on it, authorities planned to intentionally puncture the floodwall to relieve the strain.
Before officials arrived to help rescue people in Plaquemines Parish, two people perished in their kitchens due to high waters. Rescued people told deputies how to find the home with the deceased man and woman. The water in Braithwaite is over houses, so it has been difficult to navigate streets to find addresses without guidance.
Sheriff Lonnie Greco said that the two were found in a home in Scarsdale by the ferry in eastern Plaquemines that takes residents to the parish’s west bank. The deputies had to hook the bodies and drag them through the window, according to Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
The “Cajun Navy,” private citizens with boats, deployed to rescue people before the National Guard arrived said Nungesser, who lost part of the roof on his home.
He described Isaac’s wind-driven rain as “like standing in a light socket with a fire hose turned on,” the Associated Press reported.
In LaPlace, Louisiana thousands were suddenly stranded in the high-water where the National Guard and other emergency workers helped rescue them.
A tow truck driver was killed Thursday when a tree fell on his truck in Picayune, Mississippi, just across the Louisiana state line. Isaac was causing heavy rain and strong winds at the time.
Isaac made landfall Tuesday night with 80-mph winds and driving rain in the parish, where levees have yet to be reinforced after 2005’s catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, where the flood-control system has mostly been upgraded, levees were holding.
President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in Louisiana and Mississippi late Wednesday, allowing federal aid to be freed for affected areas.
Wetland erosion is viewed as the major cause for Isaac’s disastrous flooding in areas that had never experienced the high waters than accompanied Isaac.
Scientists have warned for decades that without adequate erosion management and coastal restoration, Louisiana would see unprecedented flooding.
Sources: ABC News, Reuters, Examiner, The Herald Sun, The Times Picayune
