Posted on 09/23/2005 1:28:20 PM PDT by T.Smith
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Hurricane Rita's wind and rain breached one of New Orleans' battered levees Friday and sent water gushing into the already-devastated Ninth Ward just days after the impoverished neighborhood was pumped dry.
The water streamed through gaps at least 100 feet wide and was soon waist-deep on a nearby street. It began covering buckled homes, piles of rubble and mud-caked cars that Katrina had swamped with up to 20 feet of water nearly a month ago.
There was no immediate indication that the rest of New Orleans was in danger from the new flooding in the Ninth Ward, a particularly low-lying part of the city that has been largely abandoned. Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers said other levees appeared secure, including those breached during Katrina.
The flooding was the first blow to fall on the ravaged city from Rita.
"Our worst fears came true," said Maj. Barry Guidry, a National Guardsman on duty at the broken levee. "We have three significant breaches in the levee and the water is rising rapidly."
Refugees from the misery-stricken neighborhood learned of the crisis with despair.
"It's like looking at a murder," Quentrell Jefferson said as he watched the news at a church in Lafayette, 125 miles west of New Orleans. "The first time is bad. After that, you numb up."
The water poured over and through sandbags, gravel and soil that had been used to temporarily patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee, said Dan Hitchings, a spokesman with the Corps of Engineers. Around midafternoon, he said the water did not appear to be rising anymore.
He said that the Corps could not immediately reach the spot to repair it, but that pumps would be turned on to help remove the water.
Col. Richard Wagenaar, Corps of Engineers district chief in New Orleans, said the overtopping of the levees would set back repairs at least three weeks. He said, nevertheless, June is still the target for getting the levees back to pre-Katrina levels.
The breach came as Rita began lashing the Gulf Coast with rain and wind and up to 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana headed north on jammed roads. State police said flooding in coastal Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes forced street closings by midday.
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Just to the east, St. Bernard Parish _ heavily flooded by Katrina _ water from the new breach was threatening from one side and a storm surge along a bayou was lapping at the top of a levee on the other.
Mark Madary, a St. Bernard Parish councilman, said houses that were under 12 feet of water after Katrina would probably get an additional 3 feet. He accused the Army Corps of Engineers of not rebuilding the levee properly.
"Everybody's home's been crushed, and let's hope their dreams aren't," he said.
Don't expect that building next to water below sea level will ever be safe or a bright thing to do.
Gee what is Mother Nature trying to tell us about this geographical location?
I've finally had it. Screw LA. Let them pay for their own recovery and do the work themselves. They elected all of these corrupt and whining imbeciles, and thus should face the consequences of their actions.
2nd time in a month. Can we finally write off NOLA?
Time to bring some DUTCH ENGINEERS to design some REAL levy system....
HIZZONER is in Dallas........
I am sick of the endless complaining from corrupt local libs.
He accused the Army Corps of Engineers of not rebuilding the levee properly.
That is a seriously stupid statement.
I'll give him two weeks in the middle of a flood, and I'll bet he can't spell "levee" properly.
Look, the solution is quite simple. Blow all the levee's and call it Lake New Orleans... end of problem.
Newsflash: rebuilding a levee takes more than a few days. Fixing a small break can take MONTHS.
It seems the best and easist thing to do with that place is to go ahead and turn the water in there and make it a lake and raise cat fish. Then put your new gambling, sex trade, and drugs on the new shore line. Hum seems like water now covers a couple of sin cities of the past in the holy land area of the world.
Paging that little Dutch boy. Please report to the FEMA desk.
We need you to plug some American dikes.
Are you up to it, Dutch boy?
Great move by Nagin telling everyone it was safe to come back now and screaming at the federal government that they were obstructing his voters from returning.
This guy is to New Orleans what Arafat was to gaza.
THIS COUNCILMAN IS AN IMBECILE!........
THIS COUNCILMAN IS AN DUMB$H!T !!!
Yes, he's an idiot. The entire city is populated by idiots.
Let wetlands be wetlands.
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