CNN reporting water spilling over 9th ward levee

[MoniqueU]

Waterflooding into the 9th ward and the storm hasnt even really started. This cant be good.

[Geoff_M]

There appears to be some confusion about the cause of the flooding. From the Wall Street Journal's site:10:23 a.m.: CNN reports that there is flooding in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward area of New Orleans, with two feet of water. Engineers say levee system is still intact. This flooding is earlier than expected.I know that flooding was predicted due to the rain water alone. Is some of the media assuming it's due to a levee failure?

[MoniqueU]

Yes now they are saying no break, just a 30 ft waterfall and chest deep water. Either way can't be good.

[ThAnswr]

Yanno, sometimes you just want to cry. :(

[dcentity2000]

Oh dear :(



Rich::

[Geoff_M]

From WSJ:10:50 a.m.: In rainy New Orleans, water poured over a patched levee, gushing into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods -- the hard-hit and largely empty Ninth Ward -- and heightening fears that Rita would flood the devastated city all over again. "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," said Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard.

[AllyandJack]

Is that where people were allowed back or is it still empty??

This is a nightmare.

[C.Ann]

Just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets worse........:(

[C.Ann]

Is that where people were allowed back or is it still empty??

This is a nightmare.
---------------------

No - there's pretty much nothing left of the 9th Ward already..

[Free4Life11]

I thinking this must be the "crap" levee.

This is the same one that was reported to have been breached around 8:30 a.m. on the 29th, just a few hours after Katrina made landfall. What gives...not tall enough or something?? :confused3

[theSurlyMermaid]

The Weather Channel says the levee is breached. Is that not the case?

What a mess.

[Geoff_M]

The patched levee is being "topped", it's not breached... yet. But there is a difference in the rate of inflow.

Water Pours Into New Orleans Neighborhood
Sep 23 10:53 AM US/Eastern


By MICHELLE ROBERTS and BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writers

NEW ORLEANS

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.

"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.

Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.

The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina's floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck.

Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said water is rushing over part of the levee that previously was breached.

[theSurlyMermaid]

Got it....thanks, Geoff!

Either way, though, it isn't a good situation.

[phorsenuf]

They are now reporting there are 3 breeches. Not overflow, but actual breeches.

[Free4Life11]

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Art/COVER/050923/MEGA_Tragedy_819a.jpg

[Deb in IA]

They are now reporting there are 3 breeches. Not overflow, but actual breeches.


Sadly, yes. "Our worst fears came true" . . .

New Orleans levee fails; water pours in again
‘Our worst fears came true,’ official says as flooding swamps Ninth Ward

• Water pours into New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Rita’s steady rains sent water pouring over 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.

The impoverished neighborhood was one of the areas of the city hit hardest by Katrina’s floodwaters and finally had been pumped dry before Hurricane Rita struck.

Throughout Friday morning, water began rising again onto buckled homes, piles of rubble and mud-caked cars that Katrina had covered with up to 20 feet of water.


Ninth Ward believed cleared of residents
Sally Forman, an aide to Mayor Ray Nagin, said officials knew the levees were compromised, but they believe that the Ninth Ward is cleared of residents.

“I wouldn’t imagine there’s one person down there,” Forman said.

Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said contractors were being brought in Friday morning in an effort to repair the new damage. The corps had earlier installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city’s canals to protect against flooding and storm surges.

Refugees from the Lower Ninth Ward were housed at the Progressive Baptist church in Lafayette. They were watching the TV news as the canal levee was breached again, flooding their neighborhood anew.

“It's like looking at a murder,” Quentrell Jefferson said. “The first time is bad. After that, you numb up.”

Forecasters say anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain could fall in New Orleans as Rita passes Friday and Saturday.

Another concern is the storm surge accompanying Rita, which could send water rising as much as 4 feet above high tide.

Already Friday morning, rain was falling and a steady 20 mph wind, with gusts to 35 mph, was blowing.

Higher than expected storm surge
Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Robert Gen. Robert Crear blamed Friday's problems on a storm surge that was higher than expected so early in Rita's assault.

“The surge is affected by the winds and we expect that to continue for several more hours,” he said, adding that contractors were being brought in Friday morning to repair the new damage with rock rocks and sandbags.

Federal Emergency Management spokesman Butch Kinerney said the breaks appeared to be mainly in places where sand had washed away, and that the stone holding the wall together was still intact.

FEMA was working with parish officials to pump out the water that was flowing from the levee, Kinerney said, but that main pump in the Ninth Ward was still inoperable because of Katrina damage.

“It's just not holding,” St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stevens said as he watched water pouring from the same levee breaks at midmorning. “The only way you'll be able to get out of here will be by boat in about five or 10 minutes.”

Because of uncertain weather conditions from Hurricane Rita, the recovery of bodies was suspended. Already the death toll from Hurricane Katrina stands at 841 in Louisiana, and at least 1,078 across the Gulf Coast.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9438536/