More Rain For Already-Soggy New Orleans

(CBS/AP)  Heavy rains have inundated areas of New Orleans, and authorities warned residents only now recovering from Hurricane Katrina not to drive through flooded streets for fear of creating wakes that could send water into homes.

More rain was forecast for Tuesday, after more than 8 inches of rain fell Monday on parts of the flood-prone city.

Mayor Ray Nagin shut City Hall early and schools across the city closed, in anticipation of more flooding that on Monday disrupted businesses and stalled traffic.

"Any time you see this kind of heavy downpour, it definitely makes people extremely nervous, especially going through something like Katrina. As soon as you see that water creeping up closer to your driveway, closer to your door, it makes you apprehensive," says Stacia Wilson of CBS affiliate WWL-TV.

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

All the city's drainage pumps were working properly, but were unable to keep up with the intense rainfall, emergency preparedness officials said. They urged motorists to stay off the streets.

In some areas, more than 2 inches of rain fell in an hour, while the city's pumps can handle only a maximum 1 inch in the first hour of a rainfall and half an inch every hour thereafter, said Robert Jackson, a spokesman for the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board.

"We just have to continue to work with our neighbors until we can develop a greater pump capacity," said Col. Terry Ebbert, director of Homeland Security for the City of New Orleans.

Making problems worse in New Orleans were catch basins clogged with debris from gutted or renovated homes. Jackson urged residents to clean out the basins to help in draining standing water from streets.

Meanwhile, officials closed a gate on the Harvey Canal in suburban Jefferson Parish where the waters threatened to top the walls. It was one of several in the area placed under new safety guidelines after Katrina's waters breached two New Orleans canals, causing catastrophic flooding.

The corps has worked to strengthen the canal, about 5 miles from downtown New Orleans, 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 being breached by rising waters, said Chris Accardo, the corps' operations chief.

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

Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, ahead of a strong cold front, sparked the swift and strong rainfall that blanketed the area. Bob Wagner, a forecaster with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service, said the rain should slowly diminish Tuesday and bring with it cooler temperatures.

Despite the flooding potential, the rain also offered relief to parts of Louisiana that have been abnormally dry. Until 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.

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

[stopthewarrr]

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[rushlimpdrug]

If they start dancing in the streets the water will look like chocolate and that would make the mayor naggin verry happy.
Start dancing you fools!
Can''t wait to see if bush will do a "fly-bye" as he heads to the CA fires.
That would be a riot.

[badmofojim]

They are rednecks down in that part. Simply too hard for them to comprehend that Sh*tty pumps and lots of rain equals flooding.

Oh noes i just told them the formula.

[craigh9]

marcodele:

I am sorry for what you lost and all the people of New Orleans lost and am more than happy to help repair peoples lives. That is far different then repeating the same problems over and over again. I disagree with your forrest fire assessment, the mere fact that the forrest is burned reduces the likelihood of another fire in the near futre significantly in that given area. Mud slides become more the issue and I have the same issue with rebuilding in an area where future difficulties are likely. Yes, much of the coastal south was hit hard by Katrina, but it is New Orleans that is at a very high risk of future catastrophies. You are below sea level, you have a basin which funnels water to you in hurricanes much less than cat 5. Recreate New Orleans all you like - but do it up stream on higher ground so my grandchildren don''t have to pay for it 10 times over!!! Most of our ports are situated in such a manner they are protected from storm surges to a large degree. Why does the port of New Orleans have to be directly on the gulf - move it up the Mississippi, seems to me that Philadelphia is a large port and is no where near the ocean!

[au_fait]

What a f*ing joke. New Orleans receives 8" of rain in one day and they make national headlines. Pensacola received 13" in one day as well as tornadoes and do they make national mainstream news. I am so sick of No. It is nothing but a city with a mayor who likes to cry so that he can receive attention and funds.

[marcodele]

Craig:

The likelihood of more wildfires in Southern California is much higher than a category 5 storm surge hitting New Orleans again within the 100 next hundred years. And your auto insurance goes up when a bunch of drunk drivers in some other state causes millions of dollars in damage. So like it or not, you''re paying for others in one way or another.

And the last time I looked, we were one country. I don''t mind my tax dollars helping those in Southern California practically EVERY year, and I don''t understand the outcry by mostly racist neocons who seem to have a special problem with New Orleans, not the Gulf Coast, JUST New Orleans, getting federal aid for the biggest natural and man made disaster in American history. People don''t seem to focus on the big picture, that it was 9,000 square miles of disaster from Biloxi to New Orleans. They seem to single out New Orleans. Hmmmmm, wonder why?

And since it was federal levees that failed to meet their own standards, let those responsible pay for the damages. The taxpayers already paid for them once.

And for the record, I lost everything in Katrina and did not seek nor receive one dime in federal or state aid. And there are hundreds of thousands just like me still struggling to get back to normal without being judged by the Limbaugh Nation.

[craigh9]

If can all be managed as marcodele states and those from New Orleans feel strongly about rebuilding then do it with one proviso - when it all falls apart don''t come looking for money from the rest of us. All the other areas you listed have a sizable hit or miss ratio. Tornados, fires, earthquakes, etc..New Orleans will always be at risk, and once a major event occurs such as Katrina rebuilding efforts are at extreme risk while re-implementing safe gaurds. The likelihood of re0ccurrance is way too high. Deal with it!

[marcodele]

First of all, I''m in New Orleans and there was no rain forecast for today, Tuesday, so I''m not sure why this article appears.

To those of you who keep saying the third largest port in the country should be closed or "moved upstream" - can you tell me one area of our great country that doesn''t have a potentially deadly natural threat?

Just ask the people of Southern California today. Should we wipe So. Cal. off the map too? And do those people who live in the Tornado Belt deserve what they get every spring? And what about the people who die in blizzards every year. Is that what they deserve for living in the snow belt?

Get real people. New Orleans is here to stay, right where it is. Coastal erosion can be managed, natural threats will always exist in every part of the country.

And I hate to disappoint all the neocons, but not all fates are deserved.

[craigh9]

Below sea level and in hurricane territory is a lousy situation. It''s time to stop trying to deal with it by rebuilding - it''s time to move upstream; period

[octavianfdlr]

mbcsmith said, at 10:36 AM : Oct 23, 2007:

"You snowbirds crack me up. You''re an idiot. So now rain in New Orleans is from global warming."
________________________________________________

Anyone who has been reading the warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel knows that "Global Warming" is supposed to produce simultaneous floods and drought. This is exactly what is happening in New Orleans: The streets are several feet under water while simultaneously being abnormally dry! (Well, that is what the article seemed to be saying...)

I suppose that "Global Cooling" would instead produce simultaneous drought and floods? (That is, the other way around)