FLOODWATERS RISE IN NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans fears additional flooding
Jalana Furlough, left, and Terrian Jones carry children on Belfast Street in New Orleans after a tropical weather system in the Gulf of Mexico dumped several inches of rain Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center predicts the weather system will strengthen into a tropical storm Thursday, and the National Weather Service has warned of flooding in the city through Saturday.
A tropical storm is expected to form over the northern Gulf of Mexico by Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said, prompting the city of New Orleans to begin closing floodgates, officials to warn residents, and oil companies to start shutting down offshore platforms and coastal operations.
The storm, which would be the first tropical system to strike the U. S. this hurricane season, was south of the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday and was expected to gain strength as it moved west. If its sustained winds reach or exceed 39 mph, making it officially a tropical storm, it will be given the name Barry. Its expected path would bring it ashore in Louisiana or East Texas sometime Saturday.
The developing system was already causing widespread street flooding and power losses in New Orleans on Wednesday morning, with waterspouts forming near the city.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood emergencies — its highest alert level for flooding — Wednesday for Orleans and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana. The agency urged officials and residents along the Gulf Coast to review their hurricane plans because of the threat of high winds and significant flooding from heavy rainfall and storm surge in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and East Texas.
The Gulf region faces the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes every summer, but there is an added complication this year. Heavy snowfall on the Great Plains over the winter and relentless rains in the spring have already swollen the region’s bayous and the Mississippi River and its tributaries, which drain to the Gulf. That has left the region’s levee systems with much less room than usual to absorb a storm surge before overtopping.
As a precaution, the Flood Protection Authority in New Orleans said it was closing floodgates and structures this week.
Chandris Rethmeyer lost her car to the flood and had to wade through water about 4 feet deep to get to safety. She was on her way home after working an overnight shift when she got stuck behind an accident in an underpass and the water started rising.
“I was going to sit in my car and let the storm pass,” she said. “But I reached back to get my son’s iPad and put my hand into a puddle of water.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and said National Guard troops and high- water vehicles would be positioned all over the state in advance of more heavy rain.
Regardless of the storm’s track, heavy rain was expected Wednesday across the region from the Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle. Severe thunderstorms are also possible Wednesday afternoon and evening, the weather service said, from the upper Great Lakes to the middle of the Mississippi Valley, including Chicago and St. Louis.
Forecasters said Louisiana could see up to 12 inches of rain by Monday, with isolated areas receiving as much as 18 inches.
The additional rain could push the already swollen Mississippi River precariously close to the tops of levees that protect New Orleans, officials said.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans said the agency was not expecting widespread overtopping of the levees, but there are concerns for areas south of the city. The river was expected to rise to 20 feet by late Friday at a key gauge in New Orleans. The area is protected by levees 20 to 25 feet high, he said.
The Corps was working with local officials to identify any low- lying areas and reinforce them, he said.
“We’re confident the levees themselves are in good shape. The big focus is height,” spokesman Ricky Boyett said.