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.