Storm swamps New Orleans
Heavy rains swamped New Orleans on Sunday, inundating streets, stranding cars and temporarily shutting down public streetcar and bus service.
Three to 4 inches of rain fell across the city, according to the National Weather Service, which had warned of “life-threatening” flash flooding Saturday night into Sunday.
About 11,500 New Orleans residents were without power at the height of the storm, NOLA.com reported. By Sunday afternoon, the worst of the system was moving into the Florida Panhandle, the weather service said, and New Orleans shifted to recovery mode. Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency.
Heather Wright, 48, a lifelong New Orleans resident, opened her door at 5 a.m. and couldn’t believe what she saw. Though Wright lives in the middle of a street, which rises a bit and puts her home at higher elevation, water was gushing over the curb and gutter.
A few hours later, the storm broke and the water receded. Still, Wright said, she can walk three or four doors down “and I’m up to my kneecaps in water, easily.”
The city encouraged residents to follow its emergency preparedness Twitter account. Officials warned of downed power lines and standing water.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said more than 5 inches of rain fell from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. with bouts of heavy rainfall of 2 inches an hour. The city was offering free vehicle towing, Cantrell said.
Though dry weather is expected to return to the region in the coming days, flooding on the Mississippi River could worsen throughout the month.
“River flooding may continue into June as floodwaters in rivers farther north travel southward,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rathbun said.
On Friday, the river rose so rapidly – 6 inches in 24 hours – that the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carré spillway, about 12 miles west of New Orleans, four days earlier than planned to relieve stress on the city’s levees.
Chelsea Brasted, a city columnist for NOLA.com, woke up to ankle-deep water in her Algiers Point neighborhood directly across from the French Quarter, an area not known to flood. Brasted filmed a video that showed the water backup throughout her part of the city.
Others on social media told the city it needed to raise its preparedness game.
“This flooding is ridiculous,” said Ta’Shana Stanton, a lifelong New Orleans resident who posts on Twitter under the handle @beau_tee_fulbws. “New Orleans, you have to do better with your drainage pipes … this is absolutely horrible. People’s cars are going underwater … this is ridiculous. Come on now, people.”