triple a travel: Evacuations near New Orleans due to flood threat

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Evacuations near New Orleans due to flood threat

The Gulf Coast is struggling to recover from Hurricane Isaac as nearly 400,000 homes and businesses are without power. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

St. Tammany Parish, a community north of New Orleans on Lake Pontchartrain, on Saturday ordered the mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents in some 1,200 homes, saying the failure of a lock along a canal was "imminent."

Parish officials said the order covers residents between Locks 1 and 2 on the Pearl River Diversion Canal. "Failure of Lock 2 is imminent," the parish said on its website.

Parish emergency officials said Saturday evening that the opening of valves had relieved pressure on Lock No. 2 but the evacuation order would remain in place.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning until 4 a.m. ET Sunday.

The weather service said that if Lock and Dam No. 2 failed, the initial flood wave would be about 11 feet. It said the wave would take about one hour to travel the 11 miles downstream to Lock and Dam No. 1.?

Buses were being sent to help with the evacuations in the area north of the city of Slidell.

The order came as hundreds of thousands of people in the region tried to clean up after widespread flooding by Isaac.

Some 360,000 homes and businesses were still without power.

A $15 billion upgrade to New Orleans' levee and pump system after Hurricane Katrina helped protect the city during Isaac, but areas outside were not as lucky.

Earlier this week, a levee in Plaquemines Parish overtopped, flooding dozens of homes and drowning at least two people.

The Weather Channel's Julie Martin takes a look at a slow-moving storm that is expected to dump heavy rain on the Midwest.

The flooding outside New Orleans led some local officials to wonder if the upgrades had pushed water into the outside areas.

Related: Isaac's rains hit Missouri, Illinois

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, responding to a request from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said Saturday it would run models to see if that was the case, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

David J. Phillip / AP

Ray Dumes, left, and his son Deron carry out a couch as they clean up their home in LaPlace, La., on Saturday.

Isaac's rains are now over the central U.S., helping ease the worst drought there in 50 years.

But high winds associated with the storm system were wreaking havoc. In Clay County, Ark., a possible tornado damaged two homes and hangars at the local airport. ?