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.
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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.“We have three significant breaches in the levy 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.
I can not believe this
Update [2005-9-23 11:46:29 by Parker]: Interesting CNN is saying something different…
A CNN photojournalist reported that the water was at least two-feet deep in the ward and was rising quickly.
The Army Corps of Engineers disputed that, saying water was overtopping the Industrial Canal levee but the barrier was still intact. The Corps is “not worried right now,” spokesman Mitch Frazier said.
Dana Finney, an Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman, said an 8-foot storm surge caused the water to rush over the levee.
The corps will put rescue boats in the water as a precaution, Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said. Helicopters have been grounded by Hurricane Rita’s strengthening winds.
Of course they are in denial about new breaches…that means that they didn’t fix it right the first time!
Where the hell is accountability?? Never mind…dumb question…
New Orleans is barely not flooding at the best of times. It takes weeks for all the water flowing into Lake Pontchartrain to drain, the pressure of all that water against the levees, and when more rain is added …
Well.
It’s got to go somewhere and New Orleans is a big huge hole waiting to be filled. And it is handy.
The Army Corps of Engineers disputed that, saying water was overtopping the Industrial Canal levee but the barrier was still intact. The Corps is “not worried right now,” spokesman Mitch Frazier said.
And we can see there is no problem and there is no reason to be worried:
Move along folks there is nothing to see here… Now I am even more afraid…this is becoming another PR event.
Senior Meteorologist Rob Cordry of the Daily Show
Rob Corddry: Absolutely Jon. Whatever they’re shortcomings in the past, the federal government has learned the lesson of Katrina: start blaming state and local officials now. I’ve already been assured by FEMA that the mayor and governor will have failed. And this time the president will not be detached. There are already plans to have him helicoptered in to save a baby trapped in raging floodwaters.
Jon: That seems to be taking a bit of a chance, no?
Rob: Nah, they’ve got 5 babies spread out around the area. Jon, they’re confident Bush will get one.
Jon: Who would give their baby to be used in that type of fashion?
Rob: You’d be surprised Jon. The GOP has a classification for that level of donor. They’re people who have donated $250,000 and, of course, a baby.
Blaming local gov’ts has already begun. Check this out.
Is that picture of the breached levee from this AM???
Right off the CNN website.
Thanks for the reply, and thanks for posting the picture. Back to square one in New Orleans! I feel so sorry for the folks who have lived there all their lives. Some families probably go back to Revolutionary War times, I would think.
“breached” not “breeched” <<< a la backwards baby