What remains of Hurricane Isaac has moved away from Louisiana after drenching the state with rain, but the threat of more flooding looms after a southeastern state official said that river waters are expected to crest Monday.
“The West Pearl River is expected to crest at Pearl River at 19.5 feet” by Monday night, which is more than 5 feet above the “minor flood stage,” said the president of St. Tammany Parish in a statement Sunday.
The National Weather Service said that if the river crests to that height, then it will cause “major flooding” to nearby areas. St. Tammany Parish called on its residents to “please remain vigilant.”
“St. Tammany Parish learned a few years ago that the Pearl River drainage basin was altered by Hurricane Katrina. This makes predicting the exact reach of the West Pearl more difficult than in previous years,” the statement reads.
Floods and power outages were still a reality for many residents in Louisiana Sunday, despite Isaac’s remnants moving into the Ohio River Valley.
Following Hurricane Katrina’s onslaught through New Orleans in 2005, the city received a new 130-mile-long, $14 billion levee system to mitigate flooding caused by potential hurricanes. So far, the system held up during Isaac—considered the first real test to the system because even though it was a not very powerful hurricane, it was one that moved extremely slowly and dumped heavy rains on the region.
Last week, Isaac’s rains flooded much of Plaquemines Parish, located near the mouth of the Mississippi River in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Some analysts have remarked that the new levee system mainly protects New Orleans, and that some of the outlying areas are still at risk.
Power provider Entergy said that over the weekend, it restored electricity to around 439,000 residents in Louisiana, but it also said that around 265,000 remained without power as of Sunday. The state’s power grid suffered “extensive damage” during Isaac.
The bulk of those without power, 196,000, were in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, located in New Orleans, reported the city’s Times-Picayune newspaper.
One Louisiana resident, Micki Benton, vented her frustration on Twitter Sunday, saying that she was “going on day 6 with no power,” adding that the southeast Louisiana “heat is NO JOKE” without air conditioning.
Resident Heidi Heyns, whose power has just been turned back on, said via the social networking site, “Life is sweetened” by having power to ward off the “Louisiana heat and humidity.”
Another Louisianian said that he “still had no power. Our leaders and Entergy [have failed] us again.”
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