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Heavy rains in New Orleans undermine Katrina efforts
By Cain Burdeau
Associated Press
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NEW ORLEANS -- Heavy rains lashed the flood-prone city Monday, inundating areas that had only recently recovered from Hurricane Katrina and leading the Army Corps of Engineers to close a gate on a suburban canal where the waters threatened to top the walls.

After more than 8 inches of rain fell on parts of New Orleans by late afternoon, Mayor Ray Nagin shut City Hall early, and schools also closed. People were asked to stay indoors until the flood potential subsided. More rain was expected overnight.

Waist-high water in parts of eastern New Orleans soaked businesses, some of which had recently reopened after being damaged by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

All the city’s pumps were working properly, emergency preparedness officials said. Still, they urged motorists to stay off the streets to avoid creating wakes that could send water into homes and businesses.

Officials closed a gate on the Harvey Canal in Jefferson Parish; it was one of several in the area placed under new safety guidelines after Katrina flood waters breached two New Orleans canals in August 2005, causing catastrophic flooding.

The corps has worked to strengthen the canal, about five miles from downtown, but engineers worried that water being driven into it might lead to flooding. The area around the canal includes homes and businesses.

Unlike the canal walls that broke during Katrina, the walls on the Harvey Canal are not considered at threat of be-ing breached by rising waters, said Chris Accardo, the corps’ operations chief.

“The gates were closed to minimize seepage and overtopping,” he said.

Engineers want to be sure “that we don’t put pressure” on the flood walls, said Amanda Jones, a corps spokes-woman.

Water accumulated quickly in some older neighborhoods, a reminder of the city’s vulnerability to storms and reli-ance on a complicated system of pumps and canals for drainage.

Water nearly got into the Prytania Theater in the Uptown neighborhood, a cultural icon and favorite refuge for Ig-natius J. Reilly, the antihero in John Kennedy Toole’s novel “A Confederacy of Dunces,” said Eric Ramstead, the theater’s manager.

Robert Ricks, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Slidell, said that a flood watch was extended to midnight Monday and that some areas could expect 10 inches or more of rain. Much of southeast Louisiana re-mained under a flood warning until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Despite the flooding potential, the rain also offered relief to parts of Louisiana that have been abnormally dry. Un-til Monday’s drenching, rainfall for New Orleans was about 11 inches below normal for the year.

The scattered showers and thunderstorms also came as a blessing to other drought-stricken areas of the Southeast on Monday. Still, climatologists say it will take more than a few scattered storms to pull the region out of a record drought.

Rainfall in Atlanta is almost 17 inches below normal for the year, and state officials have warned that a north Georgia reservoir that supplies more than 3 million people with water could be depleted within three months.

Almost one-third of the Southeast is covered by an “exceptional” drought -- the worst drought category.

Take a look
Steve Kendrick, left, James Moulton, center, and Greg Loushine push Helen Hutka's car out of the deep water in the uptown area of New Orleans Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. Several inches of rain fell throughout the day with more expected this evening. Bands of heavy rain flooded streets and threatened homes and businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding suburbs Monday. The rain caused traffic jams and forced police to close some roads. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Reader comments on this story - 6 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

george wrote on Oct 24, 2007 7:24 PM:

" Exactly Milorad and Antoine. There is no reason why NO needs to be rebuilt. THe only thing that needed fixing was the French Quarter... "

To Antoine wrote on Oct 23, 2007 1:08 PM:

" Have you ever been there? Do you even know anything about New Orleans? My guess is no to both questions. Only ingnorant people come up with comments like yours. "

To Antoine wrote on Oct 23, 2007 12:56 PM:

" Have you ever been there? Do you even know anything about New Orleans? My guess is no to both questions. Only ingnorant people come up with comments like yours. "

To Antoine wrote on Oct 23, 2007 12:34 PM:

" Have you ever been there? Do you even know anything about New Orleans? My guess is no to both questions. Only ingnorant people come up with comments like yours. "

Antoine wrote on Oct 23, 2007 10:28 AM:

" Yeah, what's up with this dragged out "Katrina Recovery". The Empire State Building was built in a little over 18 months - in the 1920's before CAD drawings and modern construction techniques with about 1/1000th of the money New Orleans has gotten. The "Big Easy" was a Big Dump before the hurricane- do we really need to rebuild it into a new dump? After all, we still have Philadelphia! "

Milorad wrote on Oct 23, 2007 8:39 AM:

" Good lord! Two years later and these peole are still working on hurricane damage. Ray Nagin needs to get the boot! "
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