Isaac Impacts New Orleans as Cat 1 Hurricane, Michael/Leslie follow

[Psalm 51:17]

ISAAC? Does this mean JACOB could hit the National Democratic Convention in North Carolina the week after?

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/isaac-impact-caribbean-islands-hurricane-rain/70530

Isaac to Impact Northern Caribbean Islands as a Hurricane

The Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba will be at risk for flooding rainfall as Isaac is forecast to move through the area late this week and into the weekend.
 
Hurricane hunter aircraft found tropical storm force winds in the system Tuesday afternoon.
 
After moving through the Lesser Antilles through midweek, Isaac is forecast to become a hurricane as it tracks westward toward the Greater Antilles. Isaac may intensify into a Category 1 hurricane while it makes its closest approach to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Thursday.

Isaac is forecast to remain about 70 miles south of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with torrential rainfall being the biggest impact through late-week. AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski expects 4-8 inches of rain to fall across these islands with the potential for up to 10 inches of rain in the mountains.
 
"A slight track to the north could bring hurricane-force winds to the southern coast of Puerto Rico and St. Croix," AccuWeather Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski added.

The best chance for Isaac to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane will arise before it interacts with the higher terrain of Hispaniola and Cuba. Isaac will be in a favorable environment for strengthening with warm water and weak wind shear.
 
Isaac will be slowing by the time it reaches Hispaniola and Cuba, increasing the risk of widespread flooding and mudslides in the higher terrain. Rainfall amounts in the mountainous areas could easily exceed 10 inches.
 
Hurricane-force winds could lash the southern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti before Isaac is forecast to make landfall on the southeastern Cuba late in the weekend.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/could-potential-storm-isaac-wreak-havoc-at-republican-convention/2012/08/20/49924d8e-eae8-11e1-a80b-9f898562d010_blog.html#pagebreak

Could hurricane wreak havoc at Republican convention? Will it be Isaac?

For three straight simulations, NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) model has tracked a tropical system right over the Florida peninsula through or close to Tampa just as the Republican National Convention is ramping up. Assuming this system - presently a little swirl in the open Atlantic - strengthens some, it will be named Isaac.

Before anyone gets alarmed or excited, consider forecasts of the path and intensity of tropical systems this far out have essentially no skill. As our tropical weather specialist Brian McNoldy said earlier: “In the 5-7 day period and beyond, weather details become fairly unpredictable.”

If this model defeats the long odds against it and is somehow right, organizers say they’re ready for the possibility of a hurricane Isaac during the convention according to a report from ABC News:

The Republican National Convention, Secret Service and federal, state and local authorities have been planning for a “multitude” of hurricane scenarios for “well over a year,” said Bryan Koon, Florida’s emergency management director. RNC spokesman James Davis would not give details of those plans, saying only that they are “focused completely on having a great convention.”

Since 1852, the Tampa area been hit by 27 hurricanes including 6 during the month of August the ABC News report said.

Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project has developed a tool that shows the historic probability of a named storm affecting the region around Tampa is 20 percent in any given season. The odds of a direct hit near Tampa is around 3 percent.

Jeff Masters of wunderground, who wrote a detailed blog post on the risk of a storm hitting Tampa during the convention, says the risk of a highly disruptive the storm that would trigger evacuations during the convention itself is smaller:

“[H]istory suggests that the odds of a mass evacuation order being given during the 4-day period that the Republican National Convention is in town are probably around 0.2%,” he wrote.

But if powerful hurricane did strike the Tampa Bay region - either during the convention or some other time - the effects could be devastating.

Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman ranked Tampa-St. Petersburg the most vulnerable U.S. city to hurricanes ahead of Miami and New Orleans. He noted 125,000 people live below 6.5 feet above high tide, which a large storm surge could overwhelm.

“In St. Petersburg alone, there are more than 45,000 homes that lie below 6 feet in elevation, and would likely be vulnerable to a storm surge of that magnitude or greater,” Freedman wrote.

For the most part, the Tampa region has dodged the bullet with landfalling storms in recent years. While a number of storms have brushed the area, the last direct hit from a hurricane occurred in 1946 (a category 1 storm). Not since 1921 has a major hurricane (category 3 or higher) struck the region. The storm of October 20-21, 1921 produced a 10.5 feet storm surge which would cause massive flooding today, including at the convention site.

The bottom line is that Tampa is “due” in a sense to deal with a destructive hurricane. But the odds of a direct hit at any given time are very small.

For the moment, all we can say is that there is a small swirl in eastern tropical Atlantic ocean that models generally agree will track towards the northeast Caribbean over the next several days. There’s no telling how strong it will get or where it will go beyond a few days.

The various members of the European forecast model “ensemble” (shown to the right) provide a fair representation of where this system might be in 9 days - essentially anywhere from the western Gulf of Mexico to the central Atlantic. There’s a huge spread.

In other words, this disturbance could harmlessly turn out to sea, even if it ever earns the name Isaac and becomes a formidable storm.

Inauspiciously, several storms beginning with the letter “I” have caused trouble along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in the last decade, namely Isabel (2003), Ivan (2004), Ike (2008), and Irene (2011). The World Meteorological Organization retired all of these storms due to their toll on life and property.

The odds of a hurricane smacking Tampa during the convention may be long, but chances are if it does, another I-named storm will deliver the blow.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444270404577605643222916070.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

8/22/12

Storm Heads Toward Florida Ahead of Convention

Tropical storm Isaac, which is gathering strength in the Caribbean, could strike Florida, hurricane forecasters say, triggering concern it might force a postponement or cancellation of the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.

It is still too early to predict whether the storm could make a direct hit on the city. Forecast models show Isaac's center following a path that could take it as far west as the Gulf of Mexico and as far east as the Atlantic Ocean by next Monday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the storm, packing 45 mile-per-hour winds, was moving west across the Leeward Islands and expected to pass near Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Isaac was expected to strengthen and could become a hurricane by Thursday, the center said.

more

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/storm-isaac-moves-near-puerto-rico-haiti-path-002905516.html

Tropical Storm Isaac heads for Haiti, Dominican Republic

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac headed towards the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Friday, rumbling slowly west across the Caribbean after unleashing heavy rain on parts of Puerto Rico.
 
In Haiti, Isaac was threatening thousands of people still living in tents after a devastating earthquake more than two years ago. The storm also posed a threat to Florida, where it could pass near the state's Gulf Coast on Monday as the U.S. Republican National Convention starts in Tampa.
 
Authorities have not ruled out the possibility of postponing or relocating the Republican convention if the storm takes direct aim at Tampa. But Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the convention was not his biggest concern, at least for now.
 
"People are spending a lot of time talking about that. I wish they'd be talking about making sure people in the (Florida) Keys are getting ready and that people in southwest Florida are getting ready," he told CNN.
 
The storm could also affect U.S. energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico, with analysts at Weather Insight, a Thomson Reuters company, giving it a 50 percent probability of moving into the heart of the oil and gas production region.
 
Isaac was forecast to remain a tropical storm after crossing the Dominican Republic and Haiti and then passing over Cuba into the Florida Straits. Many forecast models show it eventually advancing into the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening into a hurricane and possibly making landfall near Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, Louisiana or Mississippi on Tuesday.
 
"Isaac will likely restrengthen when it moves over the Florida Straits and the eastern Gulf of Mexico," the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
 
But the center warned it was "important not to focus on the exact track because of forecast uncertainties and the fact that Isaac has a large area of tropical storm force winds."
 
It said Isaac was centered about 165 miles south of the Dominican Republic's capital, Santo Domingo, and about 230 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, as of Friday morning.
 
"Poorly organized Isaac jogs westward," it said in its latest advisory, putting its speed at 15 mph and forecasting a turn towards the west-northwest later in the day.
 
"The center of Isaac will move near or over Hispaniola today ... and move near or over southeastern Cuba on Saturday."
 
RISK OF HURRICANE
 
The storm had top sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km per hour) but the Miami-based hurricane center said Isaac could swell into a hurricane later on Friday as it nears Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but weaken as it moves over land.
 
Isaac was expected to dump between 8 and 12 inches of rain over parts of Hispaniola, with total accumulations up to 20 inches in some areas, the NHC said, posing a significant threat to Haiti, which is highly prone to flooding and mudslides because of its near-total deforestation.
 
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the center said in its advisory.
 
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, still has about 350,000 people living in tents or makeshift shelters more than 2-1/2 years after a devastating earthquake that took more than a quarter of a million lives.
 
Red Cross workers toured crowded tent camps of Haitians left homeless by the 2010 quake to warn about Isaac. Text messages were sent out to tens of thousands of people urging them to stay away from rivers and evacuate tent camps in case the storm hits.
 
Authorities in the Dominican Republic began evacuating people living on the banks of rivers, streams and areas vulnerable to landslides in preparation for the approach of Isaac, whose effects were beginning to be felt with showers in the south of the country.
 
In the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials also braced for flooding after Isaac passed south of the island.
 
NOT ENOUGH SHELTERS IN HAITI
 
Republican convention planners said they would continue to monitor the storm closely while staying in close contact with the National Weather Service, Governor Rick Scott, local emergency officials and the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
 
"Any slight westward versus eastward deviation makes a huge difference for Florida," said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist who heads the respected hurricane forecast team at Colorado State University.
 
Some forecast models predicted a final landfall in the Florida Panhandle, in the northwest corner of the state, and several showed the storm passing near Florida's Gulf Coast where Tampa is located.
 
Florida has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005 and forecasts showed Isaac was not expected to strengthen beyond a weak Category 1, with top sustained wind speeds of about 80 mph.
 
In Haiti, Red Cross teams, equipped with shelter and sanitation kits, deployed to distribute emergency supplies, including cooking equipment, water chlorination kits, and plastic sheeting and wood for temporary shelters, said Florent Del Pinto, Haiti head of operations for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
 
Some camp residents will likely move to government-designated shelters. "But there are not enough shelters for them all," said Del Pinto, adding that the shelters - schools, churches and other concrete buildings - could only handle about 50 percent of the camp residents.
 
In 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne killed hundreds of people and flooded the port city of Gonaives with 7 feet of water in places, destroying roads and bridges and virtually cutting it off from the rest of the country.
 
Over the open Atlantic, Tropical Storm Joyce remained a weak tropical depression on Friday. It was expected to regain tropical storm strength on Monday while on a path that may take it close to Bermuda.
 
(Additional reporting by Josephine Mason in New York, Kevin Gray and David Adams in Miami, Manuel Jimenez in Santo Domingo; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alessandra Rizzo)

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/gop-platform-to-back-two-states/

8/22/12


Republicans set to endorse two-state solution at convention next week

Romney camp blocks efforts to amend its proposed party platform

August 22, 2012, 5:03 pm

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Republican Party’s platform is expected to include support for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
 
The platform committee, meeting in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, rejected three amendments that would have removed language supportive of a two-state solution, according to a delegate who put forward two of the amendments.
 
A vote before the full Republican Convention in Tampa is expected next week.
 
The proposed language as it now stands, written by the Romney campaign and committee aides, states, “We envision two democratic states,” according to BuzzFeed, the political news site that first reported on the amendments.
 
Three amendments were offered but not adopted following objections from a Romney surrogate, Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.). Two of those amendments were put forth by delegate Kevin Erickson, pastor at Cross Hill Church in Virginia, Minn., who wanted to replace the two-state language with tough language on terrorism, BuzzFeed reported.
 
A former public defender, Erickson told JTA that Israel “is not one of my primary issues.”
 
He said he was intrigued after listening to a “pretty vigorous” discussion about a two-state solution that ended in “such a close vote.” He proposed alternatives that he said were aimed at satisfying both sides, but these were also defeated.
 
J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group, welcomed the result.
 
“That such amendments could garner even a modicum of support demonstrates the very real threat to longstanding bipartisan support for the two-state resolution as a central feature of America’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s survival and security as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people,” it said in a statement.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2012/08/25/isaac-expected-to-become-hurricane-as-hurricane-warning-issued-for-florida-keys/

8/25/12

Isaac passes Haiti, heads toward Cuba, Florida

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –  Tropical Storm Isaac swept across southern Haiti early Saturday, pelting a country still recovering from a 2010 earthquake before heading toward Cuba and Florida.
 
The storm is now heading toward eastern Cuba, and forecasters said it poses a threat to Florida just as the Republican Party gathers for its national convention in Tampa.
 
The stormed weakened after passing over Haiti but it expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it nears the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico.
 
The convention is still scheduled to start Monday and continue through Thursday. However, organizers are working with state and federal authorities on monitoring the storm as they prepared for the arrival of as many as 60,000 people – including 70,000 delegates, journalists and protesters.
 
Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott said there are no plans right now to cancel the convention but the state has an emergency plan in place and that “everybody needs to be prepared.”
 
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane warning is in effect for the Florida Keys and for the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach south to Florida Bay.
 
Rocks, mud and other debris littered the streets of Port-au-Prince Saturday morning and the city was on high alert for potential flooding. But the worst of the storm has hit far from the capital.
 
It was unclear how many might have died or have been injured. Communications are spotty in the country under normal circumstances.
 
Forecasters said Isaac could dump as much as eight to 12 inches and even up to 20 inches on Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as produce a storm surge of up to 3 feet.
 
Government and international aid groups in Haiti's capital had been prepared to evacuate several thousand people from settlement camps that sprang up after the 2010 earthquake. But the main threat appeared aimed at Les Cayes, a city of about 45,000 people on the southwestern coast that is prone to flooding during heavy rain.
 
Isaac was centered about 95 miles east-southeast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, early Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 60. It was moving northwest at 14 mph. Tropical force winds extended nearly 200 miles from the storm's center.
 
Cuba declared a state of alert Friday for six eastern provinces, according to a Civil Defense announcement read on the afternoon news, and five central provinces were put on preliminary watch. Vacationers in tourist installations of those regions were evacuated.
 
Radio Baracoa, from the city of Baracoa on the northern coast of eastern Cuba, reported that high seas began topping the city's seawall Friday night. Reports said lower than normal rains had left reservoirs well below capacity and in good shape to absorb runoff.
 
Cuba has a highly organized civil defense system that goes door-to-door to enforce evacuations of at-risk areas, largely averting casualties from storms even when they cause major flooding and significant damage to crops.
 
In Port-au-Prince, a city of some 3 million ringed by mountains, authorities and aid workers tried to evacuate people from a tent camp to temporary shelters.
 
More than a hundred people were at a shelter in a school that President Michel Martelly toured Friday, but after the visit some people began to leave.
 
"They dragged me from the camp and brought me here," 38-year-old Marlene Charles, thirsty and hungry, said about the aid groups. "There's no way I'm going to spend the night here."
 
In the Dominican Republic, authorities evacuated people from low-lying areas but, as in Haiti, they encountered resistance. Still, authorities said they evacuated nearly 2,900 people. The majority were transferred to the homes of relatives while about 300 were sent to government shelters.
 
Flooding was reported in Santo Domingo and Santiago but no reports of injuries.
 
Out in the eastern Atlantic, former Tropical Storm Joyce degenerated into a weak low pressure system Friday.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/25/13475019-tropical-storm-isaac-hugs-cuba-coast-expected-to-be-cat-2-hurricane-in-gulf?lite

Tropical Storm Isaac hugs Cuba coast, expected to be Cat 2 hurricane in Gulf

Updated at 5 p.m. ET: Tropical Storm Isaac was hugging the northern coastline of eastern Cuba on Saturday after claiming at least three lives in Haiti. Isaac should become a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday just as it nears the Florida Keys, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and then grow into an even stronger Category 2 storm.

"Hurricane conditions are expected in the hurricane warning area in southwest Florida and the Florida Keys on Sunday," the center said in an advisory.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Saturday declared a state of emergency to make sure local and state agencies would be ready.

The center now expects Isaac to build to a Category 2 hurricane, with winds around 100 mph, after it enters the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Isaac is a massive storm, with tropical storm-force winds extending 230 miles from the center. Key West International Airport was halting all flights at 7 p.m. Saturday until the storm had passed.
 
In Haiti, a woman and a child in the town of Souvenance were killed in the storm, a local official reported.

In the capital Port-au-Prince -- where some 350,000 people are still living in tents or shelters after the 2010 Haiti earthquake -- a girl, 10, was killed when a wall fell on her.

Power outages and flooding were reported as Isaac moved across the hilly and severely deforested Caribbean country.

"There's a lot of rain, a lot of wind," said Magdala Jean-Baptiste, who huddled with her frightened children in their home in the southern coastal city of Jacmel. "We haven't had any power since the storm started yesterday. We passed the night with no sleep."

In neighboring Dominican Republic, Isaac felled power and phone lines and left at least a dozen towns cut off by flood waters. The most severe damage was reported along the south coast, including the capital Santo Domingo, where more than half the city was without power.

Cuba prepared by closing beaches and evacuating tourists in vulnerable areas, NBC's Mary Murray and The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reported from Havana. Flights across Cuba were also suspended.

In Baracoa, a city on Cuba's eastern side, high seas began topping the seawall Friday night, Radio Baracoa reported.

Now with 60 mph winds, Isaac should exit Cuba on Sunday and then move south of the Florida Keys and into the Gulf.

Republicans are preparing to gather in Tampa, on Florida's central Gulf Coast, for Monday's start of their national convention ahead of the November presidential election.

The convention is expected to proceed as planned but Gulf of Mexico operators began shutting down offshore oil and gas rigs on Friday ahead of the storm.

Tampa's weather forecast includes rain and high winds Sunday night and into Monday, The Weather Channel reported. The winds could gust up to 60 mph.

Monday and Tuesday include a risk of tornadoes across south Florida.

Officials were handing out sandbags to residents in the Tampa area, which often floods when heavy rainstorms hit. Sandbags also were being handed out in Homestead, 20 years after Hurricane Andrew devastated the community there. Otherwise, however, convention preparations were moving ahead as usual.

Isaac's exact path is still unclear, but the hurricane center said models suggest it will make landfall somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and New Orleans on Tuesday night.

The storm's anticipated path did shift closer to the Keys than previously forecast and emergency managers urged tourists to leave the islands if they could do so safely. A single road links the chain of islands to the Florida Peninsula.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/25/13480404-hurricane-impending-republicans-cancel-first-day-of-convention?lite

Hurricane impending, Republicans cancel first day of convention

Updated 6:51 p.m. - TAMPA, Fla. -- Republicans announced Saturday that they had effectively canceled the first day of its convention for safety concerns associated with an impending hurricane.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that "the Republican National Convention will convene on Monday August 27th and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, August 28th."

That move essentially postpones the activities of the first of four scheduled days of the convention.

Convention organizers had pushed ahead with the gathering as planned for much of the week, even as it seemed, for some time, that Isaac was on a direct trajectory toward Tampa.

The impending hurricane aside, Republicans already did some last-minute reshuffling for their convention order, moving Ann Romney's speech to Tuesday from Monday because major television networks hadn't planned to broadcast the first night of the convention.

Following that change, the main speakers on Monday had been set to be South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Planning had also called for the formal roll call vote of delegates to nominate Romney for president to take place on Monday.

Bill Harris, the convention's president and CEO, said the convention organizers "will continue providing updates in the hours and days ahead."

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/hurricane-watch-now-includes-orleans-area-151301453.html

8/26/12

Hurricane watch now includes New Orleans area

MIAMI (AP) — Forecasters say a hurricane watch has been extended to include the New Orleans metro area as Tropical Storm Isaac makes its way toward the Florida Keys.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday morning that the watch area now stretches from east of Morgan City, La., to the Florida Panhandle.

Forecasters have said that Isaac could be a dangerous Category 2 hurricane by the time it makes landfall over the northern Gulf Coast. That is expected to happen sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The outer bands of Isaac have already started lashing South Florida and the Florida Keys. Tropical storm-force winds extend up to 205 miles (330 kilometers) from the storm's center.

Isaac currently has top sustained winds of 65 mph (105 kph).

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/isaac-hurricane-orleans-224646178.html

Hurricane warnings issued for New Orleans, Gulf Coast as Isaac churns off Florida

8/26/12

The storm that killed as many as six people in Haiti and forced the delay of the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa is on track to hit the Gulf Coast and possibly New Orleans, forecasters said late Sunday.
 
Tropical Storm Isaac, with sustained winds of 60 mph, lashed the Florida Keys and is expected to intensify, gaining strength as it moves into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and make landfall on Tuesday as possibly a Category 2 hurricane.
 
The projected track and timing is eerily similar to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and Gulf Coast in late August 2005.
 
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency and ordered voluntary evacuations of more than a dozen parishes. Governors in Alabama and Mississippi did, too.
 
"I know the anxiety level is high," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told CNN on Sunday. "The storm is somewhat uncertain. Out of an abundance of caution we will begin to take these precautions as quickly as we can."
 
Landrieu added: "We are much, much better prepared structurally than before."
 
[Slideshow: Tropical Storm Isaac]
 
Hurricane warnings have been issued along the northern Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to Destin, Fla., including New Orleans and coastal Mississippi. Tornado warnings were issued for southern Florida late Sunday as a result of the rotating storm.
 
According to the National Hurricane Center, a storm surge between six and 12 feet could threaten the northern Gulf Coast if the storm makes landfall during high tide. The storm surge in Tampa Bay--the site of the Republican Convention--could be as high as four feet, forecasters said.
 
Heavy rain is also expected; in southern Florida and the Keys, up to 10 inches was expected Sunday.
 
In Haiti, at least six deaths were reported on Saturday as a result of Isaac. According to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, no deaths have been reported in the state thus far.
 
But on the eve of the seventh anniversary of Katrina, some weather experts are nonetheless growing weary. Brendan Loy, a blogger who predicted Katrina would be "an unprecedented cataclysm" in New Orleans, "breaching the Lake Pontchartrain levees" and causing thousands of deaths, says he had "a profound sense of déjà vu" on Saturday when computer models showed a "sudden westward" shift--and Isaac taking dead aim at New Orleans.
 
"It feels like August 26, 2005—a defining day of my decade—all over again," he wrote.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html?MR=1

[Psalm 51:17]

FYI, Wed will mark the 7th anniversary of Katrina(Aug 29th, 2005), when Isaac makes landfall there.

[Psalm 51:17]

The last update said a Cat 1 landfall, however there's a giant sinkhole around that area, which I believed happened partly b/c of that oil spill a couple of years ago. Not saying anything will happen, but even a Cat 1 could overwhelm it...

http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,7084.0.html

[Psalm 51:17]

The last update said it will likely be a Cat 1 when making landfall(and not a Cat 2 like reported before). However, it is going at a SLOWER than usual pace, that when it does hit landfall(and assumedly at Cat 1), it has the potential to cause more damage for a Cat 1 b/c of just that...it's going at such a slow pace that the storm will have more opportunities to do more damage.

This one is something to keep an eye out for.

[Psalm 51:17]

Projected to be Cat 2 at landfall now.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html

[Psalm 51:17]

This has got to be one of the strangest storms - they keep going back and forth projecting its category at landfall, however it is STILL a Tropical Storm. Now it's projected to be Category 1 at landfall. I don't know, we'll see...


Isaac threat to Gulf Coast well beyond New Orleans
http://news.yahoo.com/isaac-threat-gulf-coast-well-beyond-orleans-224329071.html

8/27/12

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With its massive size and ponderous movement, Tropical Storm Isaac was gaining strength Monday as it headed toward the Gulf Coast. The next 24 hours would determine whether it brought the usual punishing rains and winds — or something even more destructive harkening back to the devastation wrought seven years ago by Hurricane Katrina.
 
The focus has been on New Orleans as Isaac takes dead aim at the city, but the impact will be felt well beyond the city limits. The storm's winds could be felt more than 200 miles from the storm's center.
 
The Gulf Coast region has been saturated thanks to a wet summer, and some officials have worried more rain could make it easy for trees and power lines to fall over in the wet ground. Too much water also could flood crops, and wind could topple plants such as corn and cotton.
 
"A large, slow-moving system is going to pose a lot of problems: winds, flooding, storm surge and even potentially down the road river flooding," said Richard Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "That could happen for days after the event."
 
The storm's potential for destruction was not lost on Alabama farmer Bert Driskell, who raises peanuts, cotton, wheat, cattle and sod on several thousand acres near Grand Bay, in Mobile County.
 
"We don't need a lot of water this close to harvest," Driskell said.

more

[Psalm 51:17]

The Gulf Coast region has been saturated thanks to a wet summer, and some officials have worried more rain could make it easy for trees and power lines to fall over in the wet ground. Too much water also could flood crops, and wind could topple plants such as corn and cotton.
 
"A large, slow-moving system is going to pose a lot of problems: winds, flooding, storm surge and even potentially down the road river flooding," said Richard Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "That could happen for days after the event."
 
The storm's potential for destruction was not lost on Alabama farmer Bert Driskell, who raises peanuts, cotton, wheat, cattle and sod on several thousand acres near Grand Bay, in Mobile County.
 
"We don't need a lot of water this close to harvest," Driskell said.

And lets not forget the major drought this summer being the largest natural disaster in our country. Even if Isaac doesn't turn into a powerful hurricane, it's still nonetheless going to put more damage on our growing shortage of crops.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/isaac-hurricane-163319596.html

8/28/12

Isaac, now a hurricane, heads for New Orleans


Tropical Storm Isaac is now Hurricane Isaac.
 
The slow-moving storm, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, achieved hurricane status at approximately 12:20 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said:
 

...RECONNAISSANCE DATA INDICATE ISAAC FINALLY ACHIEVES HURRICANE STATUS...REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH ISAAC HAVE INCREASED TO 75 MPH...120 KM/H. ON THIS BASIS...ISAAC IS BEING UPGRADED TO A HURRICANE.
 
The Category 1 hurricane, positioned about 160 miles southeast of New Orleans, is moving northwest at 10 mph. Isaac is expected to make landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday on Louisiana's Gulf Coast.
 
Wednesday marks the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in late August 2005.
 
more

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.fox8live.com/story/19391789/isaac-threatens-record-corn-harvest-in-louisiana

8/28/12

Isaac threatens record corn harvest in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The LSU AgCenter says Tropical Storm Isaac could wreck what was looking like an excellent year for Louisiana agriculture.

AgCenter cotton and feed grain specialist John Kruse says cotton is at the same stage it was when Hurricane Gustav destroyed the 2008 crop.

And he says about two-thirds of a record 560,000-acre corn crop was still in the field Monday because the low Mississippi River has slowed shipping.

Soybean specialist Ronnie Levy says growers are harvesting as fast as they can, but most of their beans are not yet ready. Levy says 65 to 75% may still be in the field by the end of Tuesday. Louisiana has approximately 1.2 million acres of soybeans planted this year.

[Mark]

 End Time Current Events: 8-28-12
    


Isaac shifts toward sinkhole, ‘extremely dangerous,’ Mobile Command demobilizes
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=d6bc428b67&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole in Isaac Hurricane Watch 15-parish zone: 'Start voluntary evacuation'
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=783324eaeb&e=519a57450a

Officials to sinkhole evacuees: Go home, report new cracks, sinking
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=9149b95f54&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole engineer: Little can be done if cavern is fractured
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=6fc84eab84&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole in Isaac's 'cone of uncertainty,' 63 miles from Gulf
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=7c3e2b3cf5&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole radiation 15 times over limit, residents urged to record health signs
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=602ba64eae&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole prompts Homeland Security oversight, extra explosive unit staff
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=a31e57df89&e=519a57450a

Monster sinkhole swallows boat, 50 more feet: Workers rescued, work halts
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=1d641f1138&e=519a57450a

Officials: Sinkhole butane explosion possible
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=f6a500c211&e=519a57450a

Louisiana sinkhole: Butane well company's worst-case scenario report required
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=188cc4be30&e=519a57450a

Louisiana sinkhole local sheds light inside mystery disaster area
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=ac1fe671ed&e=519a57450a

Sinkhole: H-Bomb explosion equivalent in Bayou Corne possible
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=0bba10f6fd&e=519a57450a

Gov. Jindal’s DNR official resigns amid Sinkhole Disaster, State of Emergency
http://contendingfortruth.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2c287b20028afcd000ebd3a43&id=db9a8bf7a2&e=519a57450a

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[Psalm 51:17]

Apparently, this is NOT your typical Cat 1 storm - the news person on CNN Headline News said this morning that it has stayed for quite awhile in New Orleans(and someone on PPF who lives down there has given us updates over his phone, and he pretty much said the same thing).


Hurricane Isaac Lashes Gulf Coast in Slow Churn
http://gma.yahoo.com/hurricane-isaac-lashes-gulf-coast-slow-churn-052829040--abc-news-topstories.html


The center of Hurricane Isaac made a second landfall over Port Fourchon, La., early Wednesday, overtopping a levee southeast of New Orleans, knocking down trees and cutting power to more than 400,000 homes.
 
There were no reports of injuries as dawn broke over the Gulf Coast area. Property damage reports were just beginning to come in. There were scattered reports of people stranded in their homes by rising water in the New Orleans area.
 
"I've got a four-by-four hole in my roof, several pieces in the front yard, the back wall of my house moved a couple of feet, and with each gust of wind, it's like you're breathing in and out," William Harold "Billy" Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, said today on "Good Morning America."
 
Nungesser said some people are stranded in the flood.

"They're stranded at this time, one of the residents that is probably several thousand feet from them has taken a boat and is attempting to rescue them," said Nungesser.
 
Nungesser confirmed that a levee in Plaquemines Parish was overtopped with water, causing flooding.
 
"The water came up so quickly and overtopped the levees from Breakaway to White Ditch on the east back of the north end of the parish. It's an area that we called for a mandatory evacuation."
 
The hurricane promised to lend even more solemnity to commemoration ceremonies Wednesday for Katrina's 1,800 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the tolling of the bells at St. Louis Cathedral overlooking New Orleans' Jackson Square. This storm is far less powerful at Category 1 than Katrina, which caused at least $81 billion in damage and was rated as the most powerful Category 5 storm.
 
As of 6 a.m., Isaac was still packing winds of 80 mph and the eye of the storm is about 50 miles south-southwest of New Orleans. Isaac is moving at just 6 mph and has already dropped more than six inches of rain on New Orleans during the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane force winds extend 60 miles from the center of the storm.
 
The hurricane had moved back into the Gulf of Mexico after making its initial landfall Tuesday evening. Isaac's center remained over water where it was almost stationary before making landfall again this morning.
 
The 200-mile wide hurricane is expected to gradually weaken and move inland, dumping seven to 14 inches of rain across Louisiana, with some places receiving up to 20 inches, according to forecasters.
 
The greatest concern is an expected storm surge of between six and 12 feet off the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, four to eight feet along the Alabama coast and three to six feet on the Florida Panhandle, according to the Hurricane Center located in Miami, Fla.
 
A storm surge of 11 feet was reported at Shell Beach, La., late Tuesday while a surge of 6.7 feet was reported in Waveland, Miss., according to the Hurricane Center.
 
In Mississippi, highway U.S. 90 was closed in sections by storm surge flooding. At one spot in Biloxi, a foot of water covered the in-town highway for a couple of blocks and it looked like more was coming in. High tide around 9:30 a.m. was likely to bring up more water.
 
The highest wind gust was recorded at 113 miles an hour overnight in Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, La.
 
Thursday night into Saturday, Isaac will move into the Mississippi Valley and eventually into Illinois and Indiana with possibly six inches of rain for the drought-stricken Midwest.
 
Isolated tornadoes are possible along the central Gulf Coast region and part of the lower Mississippi River Valley through Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
 
Entergy New Orleans has listed more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power as of 5:30 a.m., according to their website. The Red Cross reported 18,000 people in 70 shelters across five states Wednesday morning.
 
When Isaac came ashore at 7:45 p.m. ET Tuesday, it dumped heavy rain with that spread 60 miles from Isaac's center. The highest wind gust reported in New Orleans was 71 mph at Lakefront Airport.
 
While traffic was nearly invisible Tuesday night, a few French Quarter bars remained open and filled with locals in New Orleans. At Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop -- the 150-year old dive at the end of Bourbon Street -- Chris LaRue recommended the four staples of hurricane preparedness, "Water, canned food, candles and booze."
 
"We're going to have some water to clean up," said LaRue. "But this kind of wind is nothing."
 
In advance of the storm, Louisiana set up shelters and stockpiled more than a million packaged meals, 1.4 million bottles of water and 17,000 tarps.
 
Since the levees failed in Katrina seven years ago, more than $14 billion has been spent on the 133 miles of floodwalls, spillways, gates and pumps surrounding New Orleans.
 
The hurricane promised to lend even more solemnity to commemoration ceremonies Wednesday for Katrina's 1,800 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the tolling of the bells at St. Louis Cathedral overlooking New Orleans' Jackson Square.
 

[Psalm 51:17]

http://gma.yahoo.com/isaac-makes-second-landfall-levee-overtopped-plaquemines-parish-052829005--abc-news-topstories.html

8/29/12

The center of Hurricane Isaac made a second landfall over Port Fourchon, La., early Wednesday, overtopping a levee southeast of New Orleans, knocking down trees and cutting power to more than 400,000 homes.
 
There were no reports of injuries as dawn broke over the Gulf Coast area. Property damage reports were just beginning to come in. There were scattered reports of people stranded in their homes by rising water in the New Orleans area.

Dozens of residents of Plaquemines Parish, La. are stranded, while there are multiple reports of people trapped in attics. The general sentiment within the government complex is that fewer people evacuated than during Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans seven years ago today.

As of 7:45 a.m. the storm's center is about 50 miles south-southwest of New Orleans, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"I've got a four-by-four hole in my roof, several pieces in the front yard, the back wall of my house moved a couple of feet, and with each gust of wind, it's like you're breathing in and out," William Harold "Billy" Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, said today on "Good Morning America."

Nungesser said some people are stranded in the flood.

"They're stranded at this time, one of the residents that is probably several thousand feet from them has taken a boat and is attempting to rescue them," said Nungesser.

Nungesser confirmed that a levee in Plaquemines Parish was overtopped with water, causing flooding.

"The water came up so quickly and overtopped the levees from Breakaway to White Ditch on the east back of the north end of the parish. It's an area that we called for a mandatory evacuation."

WATCH: Billy Nungesser: 'This Storm Has Been Relentless'
 
As daylight hits, parish officials are expected to be out examining the parish, "like fleas," according to James Madere, a parish GIS analyst who will help assess damage. Plaquemines Parish Public Information Office tells ABC News that rescue operations will not start until it is safe, possibly as late as 1pm ET.

In New Orleans, power lines are down, snaking and sparking across city streets after transformers exploded across the city Tuesday night.

The city saw handfuls of arrests early as looters took advantage of the chaos, Sheriffs and police and National Guard were all out in force.

The hurricane promised to lend even more solemnity to commemoration ceremonies Wednesday for Katrina's 1,800 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the tolling of the bells at St. Louis Cathedral overlooking New Orleans' Jackson Square. This storm is far less powerful at Category 1 than Katrina, which caused at least $81 billion in damage and was rated as the most powerful Category 5 storm.

WATCH: Hurricane Isaac Hits New Orleans: A Night in the Ninth Ward

As of 6 a.m., Isaac was still packing winds of 80 mph and the eye of the storm is about 50 miles south-southwest of New Orleans. Isaac is moving at just 6 mph and has already dropped more than six inches of rain on New Orleans during the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane force winds extend 60 miles from the center of the storm.

The hurricane had moved back into the Gulf of Mexico after making its initial landfall Tuesday evening. Isaac's center remained over water where it was almost stationary before making landfall again this morning.

The 200-mile wide hurricane is expected to gradually weaken and move inland, dumping seven to 14 inches of rain across Louisiana, with some places receiving up to 20 inches, according to forecasters.

The greatest concern is an expected storm surge of between six and 12 feet off the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, four to eight feet along the Alabama coast and three to six feet on the Florida Panhandle, according to the Hurricane Center located in Miami, Fla.

A storm surge of 11 feet was reported at Shell Beach, La., late Tuesday while a surge of 6.7 feet was reported in Waveland, Miss., according to the Hurricane Center.

In Mississippi, highway U.S. 90 was closed in sections by storm surge flooding. At one spot in Biloxi, a foot of water covered the in-town highway for a couple of blocks and it looked like more was coming in. High tide around 9:30 a.m. was likely to bring up more water.

Tornado warnings swarmed the state throughout the morning as 55 mile per hour gusts hit the region.

The highest wind gust was recorded at 113 miles an hour overnight in Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, La.

Thursday night into Saturday, Isaac will move into the Mississippi Valley and eventually into Illinois and Indiana with possibly six inches of rain for the drought-stricken Midwest.

Isolated tornadoes are possible along the central Gulf Coast region and part of the lower Mississippi River Valley through Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Entergy New Orleans has listed more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power as of 5:30 a.m., according to their website. The Red Cross reported 18,000 people in 70 shelters across five states Wednesday morning.

When Isaac came ashore at 7:45 p.m. ET Tuesday, it dumped heavy rain with that spread 60 miles from Isaac's center. The highest wind gust reported in New Orleans was 71 mph at Lakefront Airport.

While traffic was nearly invisible Tuesday night, a few French Quarter bars remained open and filled with locals in New Orleans. At Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop -- the 150-year old dive at the end of Bourbon Street -- Chris LaRue recommended the four staples of hurricane preparedness, "Water, canned food, candles and booze."

"We're going to have some water to clean up," said LaRue. "But this kind of wind is nothing."

In advance of the storm, Louisiana set up shelters and stockpiled more than a million packaged meals, 1.4 million bottles of water and 17,000 tarps.

Since the levees failed in Katrina seven years ago, more than $14 billion has been spent on the 133 miles of floodwalls, spillways, gates and pumps surrounding New Orleans.

The hurricane promised to lend even more solemnity to commemoration ceremonies Wednesday for Katrina's 1,800 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the tolling of the bells at St. Louis Cathedral overlooking New Orleans' Jackson Square.

ABC News' Max Golembo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/hurricane-isaac-lashes-louisiana-as-energy-prices-drop.html

8/29/12

Hurricane Isaac Lashes Louisiana as Energy Prices Drop

Hurricane Isaac will linger over Louisiana with heavy wind-driven rain for two days while reducing the threat to offshore energy production.

Natural gas futures in New York dropped to the lowest price in almost 10 weeks after Isaac’s landfall reduced concern that the storm would damage offshore pipelines and platforms. Oil also fell.

Isaac, pounding the New Orleans area on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, was 50 miles (80 kilometers) south-southwest of New Orleans at 9 a.m. local time, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Its top winds were at 75 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five- step Saffir-Simpson scale.

“It is moving very slowly, it is just drifting about the south Louisiana coastline, so they are just going to get pounded with wind and rain for quite some time now,” said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “The areas that are getting hit hard right now will continue to take a pounding through most of the day today.”

Isaac has halted 93 percent of U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 67 percent of natural-gas output, and forced evacuations from 503 production platforms and 49 rigs, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said yesterday. Six Louisiana refineries were shut and three were running at reduced rates, idling 6.7 percent of U.S. capacity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

more

[Psalm 51:17]

It's weakened back to a TS now - however, it appears the damage is worse than a Cat 1 expected. FOX reported that 1/2 of New Orleans will be without power for at least a week. Plaquemines Parish said they prepared for a Cat 2, but got worse(as rising water went over the levees and apparently flooded them).

Like reported - it caused more damage for a Cat 1 b/c of how SLOW it went(6 mph).

[Psalm 51:17]

Officials may breach levee as Isaac storms inland
http://news.yahoo.com/officials-may-breach-levee-isaac-storms-inland-182924245.html

Joshua Brockhaus, an electrician who lives in the flooded area, helped rescue neighbors in his boat.

"I'm getting text messages from all over asking for help," he said. "I'm dropping my dogs off and I'm going back out there."

The hurricane's impact was a surprise for him.

"We didn't think it was going to be like that," he said. "The storm stayed over the top of us. For Katrina, we got 8 inches of water. Now we have 13 feet."

Rescuers in boats and trucks plucked a handful of people who became stranded by floodwaters in thinly populated areas of southeast Louisiana. Authorities feared many more could need help after a night of slashing rain and fierce winds that knocked out power to more than 600,000 households and businesses.

Although Isaac was much weaker than Katrina, which crippled the city in 2005, the threat of dangerous storm surges and flooding from heavy rain was expected to last all day and into the night as the immense comma-shaped storm crawled across Louisiana.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.wcvb.com/news/money/Hurricane-Isaac-damages-could-hit-1-5-billion/-/9848680/16412512/-/gd7c93z/-/index.html?absolute=true

8/29/12

Hurricane Isaac damages could hit $1.5 billion
 
Economic damages could grow

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) —
Hurricane Isaac's slow, rainy march through Louisiana could cause as much as $1.5 billion in insured losses, according to one disaster modeling firm.

While comparatively modest as hurricanes go, Hurricane Isaac did wreak havoc. More than 644,000 were without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, power companies told CNN. And some 100 residents had been or were in the process of being rescued from flooded homes and rooftops in coastal Plaquemines Parish, according to CNN affiliate WWL.
 
Eqecat, a catastrophe modeling firm, suggested onshore insured damage -- which includes residential property, commercial property, energy production and the interruption of business but excludes most flooding damage -- would run between $500 million and $1.5 billion. The firm excludes flooding because the federal government insures against flood damage for most properties.
 
The storm could also cause more than $500 million in damages to off-shore energy production.
 
At those estimates, the Category 1 Isaac, with winds that topped out at 80 mph, looked nothing like Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm, with winds around 125 mph. Some 1,800 people died after that storm when New Orleans levees failed to hold back rising flood waters. Katrina caused $45 billion in private insurance damage, excluding flood losses, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
 
But Isaac did resemble Hurricane Gustav, a 2008 Category 2 storm that followed a similar path and caused $2 billion in insured damages.
 
Isaac's economic damages could grow, as the storm is only moving 10 mph and vast and spans 200 miles.
 
"If you're in New Orleans, as the storm moves across, you're going to be exposed to 20 hours of a long storm," said Tom Larsen, Eqecat senior vice president and product architect.
 
With a longer storm, the risk of flooding damage increases, said Michael Kistler, director of model solutions at RMS, another catastrophe modeling firm.
 
"Because of it's staying in one place a long time, there's the potential for storm surge," Kistler said. "This is not a Katrina," he added later.

[Psalm 51:17]

Looks like this is not over...

http://news.yahoo.com/isaacs-rising-water-forces-more-people-homes-015629079.html

8/29/12

Isaac's rising water forces more people from homes

LAPLACE, La. (AP) — The state sent scores of buses and dozens of high-water vehicles to help evacuate about 3,000 people from St. John the Baptist Parish after Tropical Storm Isaac pushed water from lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas into parts of LaPlace.
 
Rising water closed off all main thoroughfares into the parish, which is about 30 miles west of New Orleans. In many areas, water lapped up against houses and left cars stranded. The water was being driven higher by south winds as Isaac passed to the west.
 
Floodwaters rose waist-high in some neighborhoods, and the Louisiana National Guard was working with sheriff's deputies to rescue people stranded in their homes and surprised by the flooding.
 
The floodwaters "were shockingly fast-rising, from what I understand from talking to people. It caught everybody by surprise," Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne said.
 
By 8 p.m. about 1,500 people had been evacuated, and Gov. Bobby Jindal's office said up to another 1,500 more were expected to leave their homes.
 
Dardenne said officials speculated that the fortifying of levees in other parishes along Lake Pontchartrain after Hurricane Katrina forced storm surge into new areas that had escaped flooding in past storms.
 
"The water's got to go somewhere, and this is where it went," he said.
 
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries had 30 boats in LaPlace and 20 more on the way to get people out of their homes, and the state sent 89 buses to take them to shelters in Alexandria and Shreveport, and to evacuate an assisted living facility. The National Guard had seven high-water vehicles in the parish and another 25 — as well as ten boats — on the way Wednesday night to assist the parish evacuation efforts.
 
With one water district flooded, the National Guard also was sending two 5,000-gallon water tankers and 35,000 bottles of water to distribute to residents. State officials sending 200 one-ton sandbags to protect the water system from floodwater contamination.

[Kilika]

Nope, it ain't over yet. It's still raining.

You would think somebody would get the hint! Katrina, then to the day, 7 years later Issac hits almost exactly the way Katrina did. I don't think they got the first message.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/la-orders-evacuation-miss-dam-threatened-155225897.html

8/30/12

La. orders evacuation after Miss. dam threatened

MCCOMB, Miss. (AP) — Louisiana officials have ordered evacuation of low-lying, sparsely-populated areas along the Tangipahoa River because an Isaac-hammered dam at a state park lake in southwest Mississippi near the Louisiana border is in danger of failing.
 
Officials in Tangipahoa Parish, La., fear the water it would pour into the already swollen river would flood low-lying areas downstream from the park.
 
But Mississippi officials say they don't believe the volume of water in the 700-acre lake at Percy Quin State Park near McComb, Miss., would add enough flow to threaten communities downstream.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/beyond-wind-rain-isaac-could-stir-oil-232333929.html

8/30/12

As Tropical Storm Isaac roars over Louisiana and elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, it threatens to disrupt a fragile environment that's still recovering from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the summer of 2010. 
 
By disturbing the sediments in which the spilled oil is buried, near the beach and deeper in the water, the hurricane could release large quantities of oil, several researchers warn.
 
"This is another disaster on top of the hurricane that we're going to have to deal with," Garret Graves, chairman of Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told the Huffington Post. "The threat is not insignificant."
 
So far there have been no reports of oil, but that isn't surprising considering most everybody is taking shelter or has evacuated the area, said Lt. Alyssa Johnson, operation officer at the National Response Center, a federal organization responsible for coordinating a response plan to environmental releases of oil or other hazardous materials. [Latest News on Isaac]
 
Storm surge
 
Isaac's storm surge, expected to reach heights of 6 to 12 feet (about 2 to 3.5 meters), could transport oil inland, where it could further affect marshlands and wildlife or come into contact with people, Graves told the Bloomberg news service. It also could flood areas containing contaminants such as pesticides, fertilizers and septic system bacteria and wash these back out into coastal waters or into groundwater, University of Florida researcher Andrew Zimmerman told OurAmazingPlanet in an email.
 
But it's unclear how much oil remains in Gulf sediments and along the shoreline — and how much might be stirred up.
 
"It could be a lot or a little," said University of Florida researcher Andrew Zimmerman.
 
An estimated 1 million gallons of MC 252 oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has been distributed throughout the sediment underwater, on the beach and in marshes, according to Nanciann Regalado, speaking a spokesperson at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
 
"After danger to humans has passed and field teams can get into the field, samples of oil that has been exposed will be taken," Regalado told OurAmazingPlanet. If chemical analysis finds that the oil was from the Deepwater Horizon, BP may be required to clean up the oil, she added.
 
Exactly how far below the surface sediment and oil can be disturbed by a hurricane isn't clear, but meteorologist Jeff Masters said large hurricanes can create currents capable of mobilizing whatever oil is at the bottom.
 
Nick Shay, a professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami, told the Huffington Post this was possible. Hurricanes can "bring whatever is near the bottom up higher in the water column, and currents can then push it towards the coast," he said.
 
Erosion
 
Isaac also could worsen erosion in the area by pounding the shore with waves. According to the National Hurricane Center, Isaac is likely to cause significant erosion of 89 percent of Mississippi's beaches.
 
 The Deepwater Horizon disaster began with a deadly blowout on April 20, 2010, and spilled an estimated 205 million gallons of crude into the Gulf. Among other damage, the oil killed marsh grasses that prevent erosion. For 18 months afterward, marsh erosion rates doubled to 10 feet (3 meters) per year, said University of Florida researcher Brian Silliman.
 
Most of the grass has grown back, but how it will weather this storm is unclear. Barrier islands and coastlines could be eroded, affecting nesting areas for many kinds of wildlife, including birds and turtles.
 
Biggest impact

The biggest environmental impact of Isaac will be erosion causing the loss of wetlands, Masters said. A 2011 study by the United States Geological Survey found that four hurricanes in the past seven years — Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike — together destroyed about 250 square miles (650 square kilometers) of Louisiana. "I expect Isaac will destroy 50-100 square miles of wetlands," or about 130 to 260 square kilometers, Masters told OurAmazingPlanet.
 
A spokesman for BP said the company isn't worried about Isaac. "Consistent with the past two hurricane seasons, we do not expect any significant impact of residual MC 252 oil following Hurricane Isaac," Ray Melick told the Huffington Post.
 
Although plants and animals are well-adapted to storms like this, Zimmerman said, they have a lowered ability to cope when they are already stressed from human activities.
 
Luckily, Regalado said, bird nesting season in the area is largely finished and most wintering birds haven't arrived. However, loggerhead sea turtle nesting season is in full swing, and many nests are at risk of flooding.