Water breaches New Orleans levees - 9th Ward floods again
12:00 - AP: Rita Causes New Flooding in New Orleans
I shouldn’t make light of this circumstance, but in New Orleans they sure seem to have difficulty getting those school buses out of the way.
Hurricane Rita’s steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city’s lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans’ flooding nightmare. “Our worst fears came true,” said Maj. Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard. “We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly,” he said. “At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they’ve grown larger.” Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over and through a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.
Guidry said water was rising about three inches a minute.
11:10 CBS News: ‘Worst Fears’ Realized In N.O.
Water poured over a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city’s lowest-lying neighborhoods and heightening fears that Hurricane Rita would re-flood this devastated city. Dozens of blocks in a New Orleans neighborhood are now under water. The water is pouring over a patched levee, in the form of a waterfall at least 30 feet wide. “Our worst fears came true. The levee will breach if we keep on the path we are on right now, which will fill the area that was flooded earlier,” Barry Guidry with the Georgia National Guard. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.
11:00 MSNBC: Rita breaches New Orleans’ levee - Massive floods rush into the already battered city
Dozens of New Orleans blocks were underwater after rain poured over a patched levee in the form of a waterfall at least 30 feet wide, confirming fears that the city’s weakened levees would not be able to handle the additional rainfall. Water was waist deep and rising fast on the street that runs next to the canal. “We have discovered an overtopping on the industrial canal,” Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Mitch Frazier told local radio.
This is rather early for this to happen. The temporarily repaired levees were 3-5 feet clear. That was about the predicted storm surge from Hurricane Rita. It seems that the water will rise a lot more over the next 24 hours. As with Hurricane Katrina, “over-topping” is one thing (not necessarily disastrous); “breaching” is another (means that the area behind the breached levee fills up with water).
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