The Corps of Engineers has admitted to "seepage" under the sandbags at the London Canal breach into downtown NO.
The same outfit that said a "trickle" was coming over the 9th Ward levees earlier.
Once water finds a way through to the downstream face of an earthen or concrete dam (or levee) you have a raft of problems, that often do not go away until the water is at the same level on both sides.
Also, about a third of the Rita rain footprint is being dropped in the Mississippi River watershed. It will take time to work it's way to the river, and then more time to flow down to NO, but the Times Picayune has reported that a river lock is open to Lake Pontchartrain.
You can't write off downtown NO to another flood yet, but there is a war going on there, and the enemy is multiplying by the hour.
Just saw a CBS report showing the usual breached levy in N.O., then another shot of something completely different, a metal gate of sorts, with water spurting through the seams . . . no explanation, just a quick shot, but evidence of another front in the battle you speak of . . .
could you please sum up that you mean by the "river lock" being open...is that the lock on the canal that meets the MS river? if so do you know or can you link info about how the process works and what levels both are at? ..the good thing about the lower MS river is that it takes a TON of run over many days to flood and river levels no are really low becuase of drought
Geeze, I saw that about the river locks and had a sinking feeling.
What's the name of the river flood relief system that is north of Pontchartrain? The lake and river are connected by the Industrial Canal too, but AFAIK, those locks are holding fine.
The Baton Rouge radar "storm totals" make it look that under 2" of rain fell in New Orleans, but they are surrounded by '2-6"' areas - including onto the lake.
http://radar.weather.gov/radar/latest/DS.80stp/si.klix.shtml
I'm not quite sure of where this comes from though: when I hit "refresh" a while ago, expecting to see more orange and red on the map, some of the general color scheme seemingly went to lower totals. I had not saved the earlier one for comparison, so I'm not sure what's up with that...
Whatever, if N.O. area doesn't get smacked by significantly more rain, that will sure be a help.
Hopefully things will improve, but I am getting that pit of the stomach feeling that we may wake up tomorrow to another disaster after the disaster just as with Katrina.
2. The Mississippi River levees are very solid structures. Louisiana does have a healthy fear of that river but not of Lake Pontchatrain.
Looks like the sin industries of Louisiana have taken major beatings. Most of the casinos have been damaged or people have been forced to flee. The ones in Shreveport and Baton Rouge may become victims of the flooding rains (the Red River basin is getting hammered right now with rains...)