Gulf States, Midwest now face cleanup from Isaac

(CBS/AP) Isaac is passing over the mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio Valleys bringing threats of heavy rain and isolated tornadoes.

To the south, flood waters are receding. Hundreds of homes and businesses remain flooded and hundreds of thousands of people are without electricity.

The storm is blamed on at least seven U.S. deaths - five in Louisiana and two in Mississippi.

Now comes what is certain to be an expansive and long cleanup.

Isaac touched down in Louisiana on Wednesday and lingered over the Plaquemines Parish state for days.

Much of Isaac's remnants have tracked out of Arkansas, which received three to six inches of rain, but National Weather Service senior forecaster Brian Smith said thunderstorms from the outer bands of the storm system could affect the northern half of the state on Saturday.

The storm knocked out power to thousands of people in Arkansas, and Ohio hotel operators said their holiday weekend business was already taking a hit as families canceled planned outings to theme parks.

The storm cut power to 901,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana alone, or about 47 percent of the state, but that was down to fewer than 620,000 by late Friday.

More than 15,000 utility workers began restoring power to customers there and in Mississippi, but officials said it would be days before power was fully restored.

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LaPlace resident Roshonda Girrad was staying in a state-run shelter in Alexandria, 200 miles from her home. She was waiting for the chest-deep waters in her neighborhood to recede.

The massive, beige, windowless shelter next to Louisiana State University's Alexandria campus is currently home to almost 1,600 evacuees who either drove themselves or were bused in from various parishes inundated by rain from Isaac and the rising water from Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas.

"The showers are horrible. The food is horrible," Girrad said. "I'm not from around here. I don't know what's going on. We're in the dark."

As the Labor Day holiday weekend got under way, so did what was certain to be a long, slow recovery for Louisiana.

Motorists ventured out as power came back on and businesses reopened, clogging intersections with no traffic lights and forming long lines at gas stations. The Mississippi River opened to limited traffic, and in New Orleans, the normally lively French Quarter awoke from its nearly weeklong slumber.

Isaac dumped as much as 16 inches of rain in some spots, and about 500 people had to be rescued by boat or high-water vehicles. Thousands remained in shelters late Friday. At least seven people were killed in the storm in Mississippi and Louisiana.

In Lafitte, a fishing village south of New Orleans, the flood waters linger and residents are still waiting to return to homes submerged by the storm surge.

State crews cut into one of the levees in Plaquemines Parish, cutting up to 10 holes to release some of the flood waters.

Aerials from Friday show empty neighborhoods swamped with five feet of water from Isaac's storm surge. It was a surge so strong, it literally reversed the flow of the Mississippi River for 24 hours, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Meanwhile, newly nominated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited flood-ravaged communities, and President Barack Obama said he would arrive Monday — appearances this part of the country is all too familiar with after Hurricane Katrina in 2007 and the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

In Lafitte, Romney saw waterlogged homes, roads covered with brown water and debris-strewn neighborhoods. The GOP-friendly community is outside of the federal levee system that spared New Orleans and it lies on an exposed stretch of land near the Gulf.

Romney met along a highway with fellow Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and they spoke about challenges facing the stricken area, which relies on fishing for its livelihood.

"I'm here to learn and obviously to draw some attention to what's going on here," Romney said. "So that people around the country know that people down here need help."

Romney in New Orleans asks where the water came from

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., had a message for Romney as she shared a podium in Belle Chasse with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate: The $2 billion a year the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has for the nation's flood protection and coastal restoration efforts is insufficient.

"We could absorb $1 billion — at least 50 percent of that — alone," she said.

"I realize he's all about cutting this federal government," Landrieu said of Romney, "but this is one agency that cannot — absolutely cannot — take any additional cuts."

The Gulf Coast needs a state-of-the-art, comprehensive flood protection system, she said, calling it "just inconceivable" that hundreds if not thousands of people still see water up to their rooftops.

Areas of major flooding are outside the $14 billion federal flood protection system reinforced after Hurricane Katrina. The new construction held up, a relief for people like Wanda Bailey who lost her home in new Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward in Katrina. She rebuilt. Her fear that Isaac would cause another levee breach never materialized.

Bailey said, "I feel pretty good in the investment the government in our area. In New Orleans they did it and they did it well."

The humanitarian group Operation Blessing International has set up locations in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes to provide Hurricane Isaac assistance for people in the greater New Orleans area.

The group said that at both Braithwaite and Arabi, people can ask for volunteer help with work such as minor roof repair, tarpaulins, debris removal and chainsaw work.

U.S. disaster relief director Jody Herrington-Gettys said that on Thursday, more than 2,200 meals were served in Arabi in a bit over two hours.

Elsewhere, the Category One storm took its toll, killing at least 27 people - four in the United States and 23 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

At the height of the storm, half a million people in three states were without power, which is slowly being restored. Isaac also pushed up gas prices 10 cents a gallon in one week.

And though it is still early, damage is already being estimated up to $2 billion.

As for residents in the Gulf Coast, all eyes now turn to the Atlantic and Tropical Storm Leslie, which is expected to become a hurricane this weekend, possibly first hitting Bermuda next week.