FOXNews.com: Isaac Storm Surge Tops Levees, Rescues Underway

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Isaac Storm Surge Tops Levees, Rescues Underway Aug 29th 2012, 13:01 Authorities say a storm surge driven by Hurricane Isaac is overtopping a levee in a thinly populated part of mostly rural Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans. Parish spokeswoman Caitlin Campbell said water was running over an 18-mile stretch of the levee early Wednesday and some homes had been flooded. Sheriff's deputies from St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes were going house-to-house looking for residents who'd remained after an evacuation order. Parish President Billy Nungesser said a portion of the roof of his home had blown off. He described wind-driven rain coming into his home as "like standing in a light socket with a fire hose turned on." Dozens of residents in Plaquemines Parish are stranded and trapped inside homes in the area, The Times-Picayune reported. "The devastation of my house is worse than Katrina and the flooding in Woodlawn is worse than Katrina, so those things tell me that the damage on the east bank is worse than Katrina," Nungesser told The Times-Picayune. Hurricane Isaac knocked out power, flooded roads and pushed water over the top of a rural Louisiana levee before dawn Wednesday as it began a slow, wet slog toward a newly fortified New Orleans, seven years to the day after Katrina. Wind gusts and sheets of rain pelted the nearly empty streets of New Orleans, where people watched the incoming Isaac from behind levees that were strengthened after the much stronger Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. Water pushed by the large and powerful storm flooded over an 18-mile stretch of one levee in Plaquemines Parish south of New Orleans, flooding some homes in a thinly populated area. No injuries were reported. There have been no rescue efforts yet, due to the severity of the storm, the report said. Isaac was packing 80 mph winds, making it a Category 1 hurricane. It came ashore at 7:45 p.m. EDT Tuesday near the mouth of the Mississippi River, driving a wall of water nearly 11 feet high inland and soaking a neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico. Its next major target was New Orleans, 70 miles to the northwest, where forecasters said the city's skyscrapers could feel gusts up to 100 mph. Isaac's winds and sheets of rain were whipping through nearly empty streets in New Orleans while in neighboring Mississippi the storm pushed Gulf water over sections of the main beachfront highway that runs the length of the state's shore. Ryan Bernie, a spokesman for the city of New Orleans, said the storm had caused only some minor street flooding before dawn and felled trees but had left roughly 125,000 customers in the city without power. In largely abandoned Plaquemines Parish, storm surge was piling up against levees between the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River along the boot of Louisiana. A levee on the parish's evacuated east bank had been overtopped. Sheriff's deputies were going house-to-house getting residents who'd remained after an earlier evacuation to move to higher ground. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power across the state's southern parishes, including more than 250,000 in New Orleans and its suburbs, power provider Entergy reported. Tens of thousands of people had been told ahead of Isaac to leave low-lying areas of Mississippi and Louisiana. Mississippi shut down the state's 12 shorefront casinos. The hurricane promised to lend even more solemnity to commemoration ceremonies Wednesday for Katrina's 1,800 dead in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the tolling of the bells at St. Louis Cathedral overlooking New Orleans' Jackson Square. As Isaac neared the city, there was little fear or panic. "Isaac is the son of Abraham," said Margaret Thomas, who was trapped for a week in her home in New Orleans' Broadmoor neighborhood by Katrina's floodwaters, yet chose to stay put this time. "It's a special name. That means God will protect us." Still, the storm drew intense scrutiny because of its timing -- coinciding with Katrina and the first major speeches of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, already delayed and tempered by the storm. Gulf Coast officials warned of the dangers of the powerful storm but decided not to call for mass evacuations like those that preceded Katrina, which packed 135 mph winds in 2005. "We don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a Category 1 storm that can kill you," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, urging people to use common sense and to stay off any streets that may flood. Tracy Smith, 26, a New Orleans resident who decided that she and her family would be safer at a hotel near the quarter than at home, ducked outside shortly after midnight to gauge the storm's severity. Smith, a former deputy sheriff, was trapped for several days with about 100 inmates in a New Orleans jail during Hurricane Katrina, up to her waist in floodwaters. She is still haunted by the experience. "That's why I was panicked for this storm," she said. Isaac promises to test a New Orleans levee system bolstered by $14 billion in federal repairs and improvements after the catastrophic failures during Hurricane Katrina. Isaac posed political challenges with echoes of those that followed Katrina, a reminder of how the storm seven years ago became a symbol of government ignorance and ineptitude. President Barack Obama sought to demonstrate his ability to guide the nation through a natural disaster and Republicans reassured residents they were prepared Tuesday as they formally nominated Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, as the Republican Party's presidential candidate. It was unclear what further effects the storm might have on the festivities in Tampa, where, after a day of delays, Ann Romney gave a sweeping speech aimed at showcasing her husband's personal side. There was already simmering political fallout from the storm. Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who canceled his trip to the convention in Tampa, said the Obama administration's disaster declaration fell short of the federal help he had requested. Jindal said he wanted a promise from the federal government to be reimbursed for storm preparation costs. "We learned from past experiences, you can't just wait. You've got to push the federal bureaucracy," Jindal said. Obama promised that Americans will help each other recover, "no matter what this storm brings." "When disaster strikes, we're not Democrats or Republicans first, we are Americans first," Obama said at a campaign rally at Iowa State University. "We're one family. We help our neighbors in need." Along the Gulf coast east of New Orleans, veterans of past hurricanes made sure to take precautions. In Theodore, Alabama, 148 people had taken refuge Tuesday in an emergency shelter set up at the town's high school. Charlotte McCrary, 41, spent the night along with her husband Bryan and their two sons, 3-year-old Tristan and 1-year-old Gabriel. She spent a year living in a trailer after Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed her home, and said she still hasn't gotten back to the same place where she was seven years ago. "I think what it is," Bryan McCrary said, "is it brings back a lot of bad memories." Click for more from NOLA.com The Associated Press contributed to this report

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