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Please help spread the word:

This rumor is circulating because the water began to rise before the hurricane actually hit. So the assumption was the levee was blown.

Here is what likely happened (it happened in my town a decade ago):

If the height of the water at the discharge point of the river is higher than the river, the river has no place to discharge TO. When that happens, the river begins to BACK UP, and it floods from the mouth BACKWARDS. So when the storm surge was building in the ocean, the Mississippi had no place to discharge to, so it began to back up... causing flooding to move UPRIVER. Most flooding due to storms moves DOWNRIVER, which is why they talk about the "crest" of the flood moving downriver.

Flooding that moves upriver is rarely predicted so it catches everyone off guard. And if water was rising in NO before the hurricane hit, it would be easy to see why someone thought the levee had been breached prematurely/intentionally.