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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Katrina, Seven Years On--A Kind of Repeat Coming?

UPDATE  MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry tweets that her new home in NOLA just destroyed by hurricane, and posted photo (left).  It was not yet occupied and family safe.  I tweeted last night that her husband, James Perry, was being interviewed on the Weather Channel about riding it out in their current home. See his twitter feed @JamesHPerry for photos of other houses.

2 p.m.  Latest reports giving me great fears for  beloved city.  Yes, the levee that was breached is a  a "local" not a federal levee--but now those closer to home may be nearly topped or at least imperiled, Weather Channel reports.  They just showed a photo of massive flooding, to the rooftops, in Braithewaite, LA -- which is not far from NOLA.  Just now Army Corps spokesman on Weather Channel says levee may have been over-topped near Braithewaite and they may create a breach to relieve pressure.

The problem:  Isaac ain't moving.  It must be one of the slowest moving hurricanes ever.  Very heavy rain to remain in NOLA for another 12 hours or more.  My fear is that while flood control no doubt much improved did they ever foresee this much rain?  Prepared for larger hurricane but not two solid days of record rain?  Army Corps guy says pumps working as planned so far in NOLA.  But power out widely and people isolated.  Remember: no forced evacuation in this case.

We'll see.  And, obviously,  tremendous concern about other areas, already horrid videos from Gulfport, Biloxi, more.  Meanwhile, here's how I live-blogged Katrina seven years ago (the article is from a year ago so it says six years).

1 comment:

BDjojonegoro said...

This state of unpreparedness is infuriating, because wasn't the worst damage in NOLA 7 years ago inflicted by the flooding, not by the hurricane itself? Also, has no one learned the lessons from what happened to Houston during Tropical Storm Allison (I was there, so I remembered THAT, at least)?
I hope that NOLA comes out ok. Sigh.