It is quite clear to me that the level of the water in Lake Ponchartain and in the city IS level. The reporters reporting that water is still rising I would bet the farm are wrong. If there is water running where it is above sea level, it is probably backed up sewers or something. These reporters just don't have a clue about how to read topo maps (in fact some seem to think the whole town is below sea level (that was repeated ad nauseum during the hurricane, and wrong each time it was said)), or frankly how to reason their way out of a paper bag. And the idea that the lake is more than a few inches higher than sea level is ludicrous too. Its drainage into the Gulf is massive. That is why this plugging up the breach in the levee stuff from helos is inane. I would be shocked if the idea is not dropped. It will be repaired from ships in due course, in tandem with figuring out how to get the pumps working. It will probably take 2-4 weeks maybe, as a wild guess.
Actually it could still be rising, if there are levee leaks from the river side. The river could indeed be higher than sea level.