• Biggest Mardi Gras float -- 330 feet long -- has a little trouble turning

    Sean Gardner / Reuters

    A reveler screams for beads as members of the Krewe of Endymion parade down Orleans Avenue on Saturday in New Orleans.

    By The Associated Press

    NEW ORLEANS -- In a city known for overindulgence, maybe the largest-ever Mardi Gras float was a little too much.


    The 330-foot long super float built by the Krewe of Endymion had to be separated in half to make a turn during its parade Saturday. New Orleans Police Officer Shelton Carr says the float was separated and then re-attached so it could continue to roll.

    The turn was only a minor hiccup. The parade actually finished its route ahead of schedule.

    The float ended its journey at the Superdome, where thousands of revelers were decked out in black tie attire. It was the first major event at the venue since the Super Bowl power blackout.

    The multimillion-dollar float holds more than 200 riders. The parade's celebrity grand marshal was Kelly Clarkson. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Voodoo priestess: Curse didn't cause Superdome blackout

    The Super Bowl was delayed in the 3rd quarter for more than 30 minutes due to a power outage at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. MSNBC's Milissa Rehberger reports.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The powers-that-be are blaming an "abnormality" for the half-hour blackout that delayed the Super Bowl. But on Twitter, at least, they have another term for it: The Curse.


    Legend has it that New Orleans' Superdome is vexed by the angry spirits of the poor souls once buried beneath the stadium, their remains uprooted by backhoes during construction in the early 1970s.

    The Superdome became, of course, the site of many losses for the New Orleans Saints and later the misery of thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees who sheltered there.

    Perhaps it's only natural -- well, supernatural, anyway -- to suggest that the alleged curse was working again Sunday night in a city that loves its superstitions as much as its football.

    Voodoo priestess Miriam Chamani was once enlisted by a radio station to bless the Superdome, using a live python and a pumpkin, before the Saints faced off against the Cleveland Browns in 1999.

    So what does she think zapped the juice in the third quarter as the Baltimore Raves sacked the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick?

    "I think any time you put that much tension on the circuits in a short time, something is bound to happen," Chamani said Monday.

    Mystical tension? Beyond-the-grave type tension?

    "No, just a lot of people using power," she said.

    But Superdome officials said the stadium was actually using less electricity than it does during a typical Saints game. None of its equipment, all upgraded since Katrina in 2005, failed.

    And you can forget the Curse of Beyonce because her half-time show used its own generators.

    The investigation is ongoing. For now, all officials will say is an "abnormality" at the point where power company Entergy's feed intersects with the arena's equipment prompted a circuit breaker to make the Superdome go dark.

    Courtesy Miriam Chamani

    Miriam Chamani, a voodoo priestess, doesn't think the Superdome is cursed -- more than any other place in New Orleans.

    Bob Remy, the statistician for the Saints, who was at the game, agrees the outage was "strange."

    "But it's hard to believe it's a curse," he said, pointing to the Saints' 2009 Super Bowl championships and some winning seasons by the New Orleans Hornets, who play in an arena adjacent to the Superdome.

    The stadium is built over the old Girod Cemetery, where 30,000 people, including many victims of cholera and yellow fever epidemics, were buried.

    The dilapidated graveyard was deconsecrated in 1957 and many of the remains relocated. But when Superdome construction began, many more were dug up, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

    The Saints opened their first season there with a 2-12 record and did not have a winning season until 1987 -- and the idea of a curse was born.

    "I guess if you're a true believer in voodoo you might might take it seriously," said Tulane University professor Lawrence Powell, a local historian. "Most people talk about it tongue-in-cheek. At least in the circles I move in."

    But the Saints themselves bought into the curse enough to hire a voodoo priestess, Ava Kay Jones, to perform rituals before two games in 2000 and 2001. Her record: 1-1.

    Chamani's own ritual resulted in a Browns victory, she said, casting further doubt on the idea of a curse.

    Maybe she isn't the best expert to consult, though. After all, she admits that when the lights went out Sunday, her own lights were already out.

    "I went into a snooze," she said.

    "I guess sometimes life is a curse itself."

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    This ad for Bud Light, featuring Stevie Wonder and his hit song "Superstition," aired during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVII.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Barges stuck as oil spill jams Mississippi River

    Melanie Thortis / Vicksburg Evening Post via AP

    Barges wait for traffic to re-open along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss. on Monday.

    By Holbrook Mohr and Janet McConnaughey, The Associated Press

    VICKSBURG, Miss. -- With more than 50 vessels idled on the water for a fourth day Wednesday, authorities said they still did not know when they would be able to reopen a 16-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that was closed due to an oil spill.

    A plan to pump oil from a leaking barge onto another barge — a process known as lightering — had been approved, but it was unclear how long that would take, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said Tuesday. He said the other barge was en route.

    Severe weather that was expected to sweep through the area could shut down cleanup operations for a time, prolonging the process further, authorities said.

    Crews have been working around the clock to contain and remove oil since the barge, owned by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Third Coast Towing LLC, struck a railroad bridge and began leaking early Sunday. The company has refused to comment on the incident.

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    Lally also noted that about 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for aboard the barge. He said it was not clear whether all of it spilled into the river or some seeped into empty spaces inside the barge.

    At least 54 vessels, including towboats and barges, were idled on the river, one of the nation's vital commerce routes.

    More than 168 million tons of cargo a year moves along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge, La., and the mouth of the Ohio River, carried by nearly 22,300 cargo ships and 162,700 barges, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About 3.6 million tons of cargo is handled annually by the port of Vicksburg.

    When low water threatened to close the river earlier in January, the tow industry trade group American Waterways Operators estimated that 7.2 million tons of commodities worth $2.8 billion might be sidelined over the last three weeks of the month.

    Salt destined for Northern roads moves upriver in January, said spokeswoman Ann McCulloch. "We're still moving corn, soybeans and grain, but also coal and petroleum ... stone, sand and gravel," she said Tuesday.

    Barges carry 20 percent of the nation's coal and more than 60 percent of its grain exports, according to the group.

    Ron Zornes, director of corporate operations for Canal Barge Co. of New Orleans, said each idled towboat could cost a company anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 a day. The low end would be for a single boat with a couple of barges and the high end for one in "a system of towboats that acts sort of like a bus system."

    "So if one bus is stopped it gums up the whole system," he said. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin charged with Katrina-related corruption

    Ray Nagin has been indicted on 21 counts of corruption. NewsNation's Tamron Hall reports.

    By Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

    NEW ORLEANS -- Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted Friday on charges that he used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.


    The charges against Nagin are the outgrowth of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen and a prison sentence for a former city vendor.

    The federal indictment accuses Nagin of accepting more than $160,000 in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of a local businessman who secured millions of dollars in city contract work after the 2005 hurricane. The businessman, Frank Fradella, pleaded guilty in June to bribery conspiracy and securities-fraud charges and has been cooperating with federal authorities.

    Nagin, 56, also is charged with accepting at least $60,000 in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts for architectural, engineering and management services work. Williams, who was president of Three Fold Consultants LLC, pleaded guilty Dec. 5 to a conspiracy charge.

    The indictment also accuses Nagin of getting free private jet and limousine services to New York from an unidentified businessman. Nagin is accused of agreeing to wave tax penalties that the businessman owed to the city on a delinquent tax bill in 2006.

    In 2010, Greg Meffert, a former technology official and deputy mayor under Nagin, pleaded guilty to charges he took bribes and kickbacks in exchange for steering city contracts to businessman Mark St. Pierre. Anthony Jones, who served as the city's chief technology officer in Nagin's administration, also pleaded guilty to taking payoffs.

    Meffert cooperated with the government in its case against St. Pierre, who was convicted in May 2011 of charges that include conspiracy, bribery and money laundering.

    Nagin, a former cable television executive, was a political novice before being elected to his first term as mayor in 2002, buoyed by strong support from white voters. He cast himself a reform-minded progressive who wasn't bound by party affiliations, as he snubbed fellow Democrat Kathleen Blanco and endorsed Republican Bobby Jindal's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2003.

    Katrina elevated Nagin to the national stage, where he gained a reputation for colorful and sometimes cringe-inducing rhetoric.

    During a radio interview broadcast in the storm's early aftermath, he angrily pleaded with federal officials to "get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans." In January 2006, he apologized for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted New Orleans would be a "chocolate city" and asserted that "God was mad at America."

    Enrique De La Osa / Reuters file

    Ray Nagin, then mayor of New Orleans, in October 2009.

    Strong support from black voters helped Nagin win re-election in 2006 despite widespread criticism of his post-Katrina leadership. But the glacial pace of rebuilding, a surge in violent crime and the budding City Hall corruption investigation chipped away at Nagin's popularity during his second term.

    Nagin could not seek a third consecutive term because of term limits. Mitch Landrieu, who ran against Nagin in 2006, succeeded him in 2010.

    Aaron Bennett, a businessman awaiting sentencing in a separate bribery case, told The Times-Picayune that he introduced Nagin to Fradella specifically to help the mayor get Home Depot granite installation work for a business that he and his sons founded. Fradella's company received millions of dollars in city contracts for repair work at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and in the French Quarter after Katrina, the newspaper reported.

    Some of the allegations in the indictment have been the subject of state ethics complaints. In April 2010, the Louisiana Board of Ethics charged Nagin with two possible violations of state ethics law.

    One charge involves Nagin's "use of a credit card and/or gifts" from St. Pierre and his technology firm, NetMethods, while the company was working for the city. NetMethods paid for Nagin and his family to travel to Jamaica in 2005 and to Hawaii in 2004, according to newspaper reports.

    In the other charge, the Ethics Board says Stone Age LLC, the Nagin family's business, was compensated for installation services provided to Home Depot while the home improvement retailer was negotiating tax breaks from the city.

    Nagin has largely steered clear of the political arena since he left office. On his Twitter account, he describes his current occupations as author, public speaker and "green energy entrepreneur." He wrote a self-published memoir called "Katrina's Secrets: Storms After the Storm."

    Nagin's attorney, Robert Jenkins, didn't immediately return cellphone calls seeking comment on the indictment. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Levees protect New Orleans, but annual bill is crushing

    Gerald Herbert / AP

    This flood wall and floodgate are along Lakeshore Drive and Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, La.

    By Cain Burdeau, The Associated Press

    In the busy and under-staffed offices of New Orleans' flood-control leaders, there's an uneasy feeling about what lies ahead.


    By the time the next hurricane season starts in June of 2013, the city will take control of much of a revamped protection system of gates, walls and armored levees that the Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $12 billion building. The corps has about $1 billion worth of work left. 

    Engineers consider it a Rolls Royce of flood protection — comparable to systems in seaside European cities such as St. Petersburg, Venice, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Whether the infrastructure can hold is less in question than whether New Orleans can be trusted with the keys. 

    The Army Corps estimates it will take $38 million a year to pay for upkeep, maintenance and operational costs after it's turned over to local officials. 

    Local flood-control chief Robert Turner said he has questions about where that money will come from. At current funding levels, the region will run out of money to properly operate the high-powered system within a decade unless a new revenue source is found. 

    "There's a price to pay for resiliency," the levee engineer said from his office at the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. "We can't let pieces of this system die away. We can't be parochial about it." 

    On Nov. 6, New Orleans voters were faced with one of their first challenges on flood protection when they voted on renewal of a critical levee tax. The tax levy was approved, meaning millions of dollars should be available annually for levee maintenance. 

    Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California, said the region must find additional money to keep the system working properly. "If you try to operate it and maintain it on a shoestring, then it won't provide the protection that people deserve." 

    How New Orleans has changed since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with Douglas Brinkley, Rice University Professor.

    Many locals remain uneasy, even though Turner's agency is a welcome replacement for local levee boards that were previously derided. 

    "It's scary," said C. Ray Bergeron, owner of Fleur De Lis Car Care, a service station in the Lakeview neighborhood where water rose to rooftops after levees collapsed during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Before Katrina, Bergeron said the local levee boards were complacent. "They told everybody everything was fine, 'Oh yeah, it's fine. Let's go have martinis and lunch.'" 

    After Katrina, the locally run levee boards that oversaw the area's defenses were vilified, and quickly replaced by the regional levee district run by Turner. 

    Congressional investigations found the old Orleans Levee Board more interested in managing a casino license and two marinas than looking after levees. Inspections were ceremonial, millions of dollars were spent on a fountain and overpasses rather than on levee protection. And there was confusion over who was responsible for managing the fragmented levee system, U.S. Senate investigations revealed. 

    Still, experts generally agree the old levee board's failings did not cause the levees to collapse during Katrina. Poor levee designs by the corps and the sheer strength of Katrina get the lion's share of the blame. 

    Since the Flood Control Act of 1936, the Army Corps has given local or state authorities oversight of water-control projects, whether earthen levees in the Midwest or beach walls in New England. 

    Bill Haber / AP

    Water is pumped through giant tubes around the floodgate at the London Ave. outflow canal during a test in New Orleans in May 2009.

    "That's been the eternal problem with flood-protection systems," said Thomas Wolff, an engineer at Michigan State University. "You build something very good and then give it to local interests who are not as well-funded." 

    New Orleans is an unusual case because the area is inheriting the nation's first-of-its-kind urban flood control system. 

    "We've given a very expensive system to a place that may not be able to afford it over the long term," said Leonard Shabman, an Arlington, Va.-based water resources expert. Letting the Army Corps run it isn't much of a solution either, he added. "It's not like the corps' budget is flush." 

    The nation has spent lavishly on fixing the system in the seven years since Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans and left 1,800 people dead. 

    "It is better than what the Dutch have for the types of storms we have," said Carlton Dufrechou, a member of the board of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, which monitors local environmental issues. 

    Ensuring it remains that way could be tricky. The biggest headaches are several mega-projects with lots of moving parts, all needing constant upkeep. The corps is building them across major waterways that lead into New Orleans. 

    Take for instance the 1.8-mile-long, 26-foot-high surge barrier southeast of the French Quarter that blocks water coming up from the Gulf of Mexico across lakes and into the city's canals. Water from this direction doomed the Lower 9th Ward and threatened to flood the French Quarter. Maintaining this giant wall alone will cost $4 million or more a year. 

    "You have to get out there and do exercises, do the preventive maintenance, change out equipment over time on a particular schedule," Turner said, enumerating the challenges. "There are a lot of cases where a single thing goes wrong and that can create a failure, a complete failure where you can't close the system." 

    There is a mounting list of to-dos. 

    Already, lightning has knocked out chunks of wall. Grass hasn't grown well on several new stretches of levee. Louisiana State University grass experts have been called in to help seed them. 

    There are recurring problems with vibrations and shuddering on a new floodgate at Bayou Dupre in St. Bernard Parish. The corps has plans to overhaul the structure in the spring before handing it over to local control. And there will be the inevitable sinking of levees and structures, as always happens in south Louisiana's naturally soft soils. Over time, levees will have to be raised. 

    Col. Ed Fleming, the New Orleans corps commander, said his outfit will work to ensure the transition to local control is smooth. 

    "This happens with corps civil projects all over the country. That's the way it works in Iraq, Afghanistan," he said. "We have authority to build, but we have no authority to do operations and maintenance." 

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  • Marijuana joint falls out of assistant city attorney's pocket -- in court

    By NBC News staff

    A New Orleans attorney was cited for marijuana possession this week after a joint tumbled out of his pocket in front of police, according to media reports.


    Police say Jason Cantrell, who has a private practice but also serves as a part-time assistant city attorney, was in the magistrate section of criminal court chatting with police officers when a marijuana joint fell out of his pocket and onto the floor, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. 

    Cantrell, 43, was a first-time offender and was cited, issued a summons to appear in court for simple possession of marijuana and let go, according to police spokesman Garry Flot.

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    The handling of his case is the result of an effort by city leaders and prosecutors two years ago to unclog a congested system and allow people arrested for having a small amount of marijuana on them to receive a summons and not be taken to jail, according to the Times-Picayune.

    Besides being a private practice attorney, Cantrell doubles as a part-time city attorney, handling cases in traffic court. He was not working for the city when the incident occurred.

    City Hall spokesman Ryan Berni told WDSU that Cantrell has been suspended without pay, pending an investigation.

    Cantrell’s wife, LaToya, is a candidate for a district seat on the City Council. She released a statement apologizing for her husband and saying, “I absolutely do not condone his actions,” the New York Daily News reported. 

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    “I love my husband unconditionally and am very concerned for his health and well-being, and for that of our family,” LaToya said. “I hope that this incident will encourage Jason to seek the professional help.”

    Cantrell has practiced civil and criminal law in New Orleans for 17 years, including six as a public defender in juvenile court.

    He ran for a position as a judge in juvenile court in 2009 but lost. 

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  • Cops: Woman kills husband, mistaking him for intruder

    By WDSU 6 in New Orleans and NBC News staff

    NEW ORLEANS -- A 57-year-old New Orleans man was accidentally shot and fatally injured by his wife who mistook him for an intruder, police said Monday.

    The shooting occurred about 11 a.m. Monday (noon ET) in the 5800 block of North Claiborne Ave. in the Lower 9th Ward.

    Police said the man, named by the Times Picayune newspaper as Charles Williams, died at the hospital.


    No charges were immediately filed in the investigation.

    The newspaper said the man's 53-year-old wife was not arrested.

    More on this story from NBC affiliate WDSU 6 New Orleans

    The Times Picayune reported that the Orleans Parish district attorney's office is expected to review the case, quoting a news release from a police spokesman, officer Garry Flot.

    Williams' daughter said the family was too upset to talk about what happened, the newspaper reported.

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  • Evacuations ordered near New Orleans as Isaac water threatens river lock

    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, fearing the failure of a lock along a canal could send a wave of water sweeping through neighborhoods.


    Saturday night, parish emergency officials said that the opening of valves had relieved pressure on Lock 2 on the Pearl River Diversion Canal but the evacuation order would remain in place.

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

    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 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.  

    Mark Rockwell / Joe Jett

    A hangar lies in ruins after high winds slammed the airport in Clay County, Ark.

    Mark Rockwell / Joe Jett

    Wind damage at the airport in Clay County, Ark.

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  • Evacuations continue as Isaac is downgraded to tropical depression

    Gerald Herbert / AP

    Officials intentionally breached a levy Thursday to alleviate trapped floodwater in the community of Braithwaite, La., in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Updated at 1:24 a.m. ET: Up to 50,000 people in Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish were ordered to evacuate Thursday when water from Isaac -- which by late afternoon had weakened to a tropical depression -- threatened to overwhelm a dam across the state line in Mississippi.

    Bing Maps

    The dam at Percy Quin State Park in Mississippi is located at the southern end, seen here with a blue bullet.

    By late Thursday, the Percy Quin State Park dam, located about 100 miles north of New Orleans, was no longer an imminent threat, dam safety engineer Dusty Myers said.

    Mississippi officials, for their part, said they didn't think the volume of water in the 700-acre lake at Percy Quin State Park near McComb, Miss., would add enough flow to threaten communities downstream.

    And Gov. Bobby Jindal said that if the dam were to break, a natural flood plain would prevent communities in Louisiana from being flooded. 

    Officials by late Thursday afternoon had started a controlled release from the dam to minimize flooding.

    John Moore / Getty Images

    A family fleeing the potential dam break waits to enter a shelter in Kentwood, La., on Thursday.

    Hundreds were evacuated in darkness overnight while new areas in southern Louisiana flooded as Tropical Storm Isaac crawled north. Its eye was heading toward Arkansas, but its heaviest rain bands were now moving over Mississippi.

    "We still have people penned in both (Plaquemines and St. John) parishes," Lt. Col. Michael Kazmierzak, a Louisiana National Guard spokesman, told The Weather Channel Thursday morning. "We're still assisting with evacuations in both of those parishes."

    "The big thing we've been doing through the night is with St. John's," he said. "We've assisted locals with evacuations of more than 3,000 people" there.

    "The weather was definitely a major part of the difficulty," he added, "but when you get into darkness that creates a problem of its own, just being able to see and identify where the people are located."

    NBC's Lester Holt reports from Braithwaite, La., where Isaac left flooded streets, downed lines and people stranded.


    Protected by federal levees, central New Orleans appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm, but rural areas of Louisiana and neighboring Mississippi were swamped and power outages widespread.

    The first death from Isaac was reported in Mississippi early Thursday. A tow-truck driver died after a tree fell on his cab while he was trying to move a large tree from a main street in Picayune.

    Two other deaths were confirmed Thursday evening; a man and woman were found floating in a flooded kitchen in Braithwaite, La. "Unfortunately, I believe we will find more bodies, " Plaquemines County Coroner's chief investigator John Marie told NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez.

    More than 1,800 people died during Hurricane Katrina.

    In Slidell, La., areas that had never flooded, including during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, saw up to five feet of water after drain pumps were overwhelmed.

    Some residents in Slidell, Louisiana are contending with several feet of water from Tropical Storm Isaac.

    Numerous homes and businesses were swamped, and police rescued 145 residents, NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reported from the scene.

    "Water is currently backing up into the city through Bayou Pattasat," Mayor Freddy Drennan said in a statement on the city's website. "The pumps are currently unable to pump the water out as fast as it's coming in. It is anticipated that until Bayou Bonfouca recedes, the city will continue to be inundated with water."

    Slideshow: Isaac moves inland

    A downgraded Isaac floods coastal communities and forces new evacuations, but levees still hold.

    Launch slideshow

    Slidell is on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans. 

    Around 850,000 homes and businesses across Louisiana and Mississippi were without power Thursday.

    The Red Cross said almost 4,000 people were being accommodated in emergency shelters across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

    Isaac is expected to be a soaker for days. 

    NBC's Kate Snow checks out New Orleans' streets and neighborhoods for damage.

    "It's still pulling up all kinds of Gulf moisture, producing a large shield of rain," said Weather Channel hurricane specialist Carl Parker. 

    "The worst of the rain has spun off to the east and north into Mississippi," added the Weather Channel's Mike Seidel, who reported from Baton Rouge, La., where rainfall was light.

    Meteorologists have found Isaac vexing and tricky to pin down, describing the storm as “disorganized” and “uncharacteristic.”

    George Dubaz, a New Orleans tour guide, put it more simply to Reuters: For him, Isaac was a lumbering "pain in the ass."

    "Most of them blow through and are over with. This one is just hanging around too long," Dubaz said, comparing the storm to "somebody that comes for Mardi Gras and they stay two weeks afterwards."

    President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in Louisiana and Mississippi late Wednesday to supplement state and local recovery efforts beginning on Aug. 26, according to a White House statement.

    In Plaquemines Parish, a sparsely populated area of south of New Orleans that is outside the post-Katrina federal levee system, dozens had to be rescued when a levee was overtopped Wednesday.

    Officials rescued 145 people from their homes in flooded Slidell, La., where some were trapped in up to six feet of water. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

    The storm pushed water over the 18-mile levee and put so much pressure on it that authorities on Thursday intentionally punctured the floodwall to relieve the strain.

    Along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain just north of New Orleans, officials sent scores of buses and dozens of high-water vehicles to help evacuate residents.

    Related: Blessing and curse for drought areas due to Isaac
    Related: Resident reports on how post-Katrina defenses saved town
    Related: Stories from the storm: 'They were screaming away'
    Related: Isaac stirs up horrible memories for New Orleans residents

    Isaac arrived seven years after Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city's fortified levee system easily handled the assault. But, low-lying areas outside the city were harder-hit.

    New Orleans set a daily record of 7.86 inches of rain on Wednesday, The Weather Channel reported, breaking the previous record for an August 29 -- 4.5 inches set by Katrina in 2005.

    On Thursday, the rain was finally letting up in New Orleans but 40 percent of the city was still without power. 

    "We're hearing from stores here that they're planning to open later today," reported NBC News' Danielle Lee. "This area relies on tourism, and they don't want to miss out on that Labor Day weekend travel."

    "The mayor has been calling other stores who are able to sell emergency supplies, generators, things that may help people without power, asking them to please get open as quickly as possible," Lee added.

    Police reported few problems with looting, after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew. He lifted the curfew Thursday.

    Forecasters expected Isaac to move farther inland over the next several days, dumping rain on drought-stricken states across the nation's midsection before finally breaking up over the weekend.

    In coastal Mississippi, officials used small motorboats Wednesday to rescue at least two dozen people from a neighborhood Isaac flooded in Pearlington. In addition, the National Weather Service said there were reports of at least three possible tornadoes touching down in coastal counties. No injuries were reported.

    About 5.5 percent of total U.S. refining capacity was still idle Thursday because of Isaac, Reuters reported, although oil and gas companies prepared to reboot their operations as the storm weakened and water receded. The refiners had decided to shut down or run at reduced rates to protect their operations.

    Meanwhile, gas prices jumped again in the wake of the storm; AAA reported they reached $3.82 nationally on Thursday.

    The Associated Press, Reuters, NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez, Thanh Truong and Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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  • Isaac stirs up horrible memories for New Orleans residents

    By Kate Snow , NBC News

    As Isaac lingered outside her door, Connie Uddo was busy Wednesday calling elderly friends in her neighborhood to make sure they were holding up. She, like the majority of New Orleans residents, had no power.

    Kate Snow / NBC News

    Connie Uddo on Thursday, Aug. 30, stands at the non-profit center she started after Katrina.

    “It’s just a tedious, long, arduous storm,” she said.

    Storms are a big part of life in New Orleans. They always have been. There are records of hurricanes hitting the Crescent City as far back as the 1700s.

    But things changed when Hurricane Katrina struck seven years ago — especially for Uddo.

    “Our neighborhood, it was condemned, uninhabitable and unsafe. You had to have a pass to get in,” she said.

    That is something she never wants to live through again — she doesn’t think she could handle it. As Isaac was bearing down, she felt a familiar mixture of dread and anxiety.

    “The wind had me a little freaked out at points last night because our house was shaking a lot and the windows were rattling,” she said.

    Related: Isaac loses steam, but brings flooding, power outages
    Related: 'They were screaming away': Louisiana man recounts rescue 

    Uddo and her kids had evacuated just before Katrina hit. In October of 2005, when she returned to her 90-year-old wood and plaster home, she found a mold-infested mess. The first floor, which they had renovated as rental units, had been under eight feet of water, which took a month to drain out. 

    Slideshow: Isaac moves inland

    A downgraded Isaac floods coastal communities and forces new evacuations, but levees still hold.

    Launch slideshow

    “It was horrific. It was shocking. It was something that I never thought I would ever see in my lifetime ... everything was gray.," she said. "It literally looked like a nuclear disaster. There were no birds, insects, squirrels. The silence was just deafening.”

    Uddo thought about leaving for good. She cried — a lot.

    “It wasn’t just the physical loss,” she said. “It was the emotional loss of your community, your social network, your children’s friends.”

    New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu spoke with NBC's Kate Snow at the city's emergency center about improvements in communication since Hurricane Katrina.

    But Uddo decided to move back and rebuild. In January 2006, her family was the first of 10 families in her neighborhood to have electricity.

    Lakeview, she said, was a “green dot” on a city planning map — a place that some planners thought would become nothing but green space with no residential homes. 


    She wouldn't hear of it. "We’re a hundred-year-old neighborhood. You don’t tell a hundred-year-old neighborhood that."

    So she rebuilt, and she convinced others to do the same. Uddo would walk around the neighborhood asking plumbers, roofers, builders and other tradespeople for their phone numbers. Since phone books no longer worked, she compiled a list. She counseled her neighbors at her dining room table. She recruited teen-aged volunteers to come to the neighborhood and clean up the front yards so that returning residents wouldn't be as shocked as she had been when she first drove in.

    Eventually, Uddo opened St. Paul’s Homecoming Center, which still operates and helps residents who fled Katrina. The center has coordinated more than 50,000 volunteers.

    As soon as Isaac lets up enough, probably on Thursday, Uddo plans to go back to the Center and start the cleanup. So far, she hasn’t seen any major flooding in her neighborhood. On a walk earlier Wednesday she checked on the trees she recently planted. They’re tattered, but still standing. The elderly neighbors she called are doing all right too. And for that, she’s thankful.

    “Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be back in action,” she said.

    Wednesday was spent napping, having tea, catching up on laundry and house chores.

    “I really feel blessed. I don’t want to jinx it. It’s not over. But it could’ve been worse.  So many things could’ve happened.”

    The storm has tested the city's post-Katrina flood defenses, leaving many roads impassable and creating a storm surge from Louisiana to Alabama. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    Uddo thinks a storm like Isaac solidifies her community.

    “Once again we’re a stronger, more unified community because of it. And that’s the silver lining. You come out stronger."

    One of the biggest lessons of Katrina, Uddo said, is that neighbors have to look out for each other. Before Katrina, they never would have coordinated before a storm. On Tuesday night, before the power went out, Uddo and her husband went up the block for a neighborhood gathering. They made plans together about what they would do if the water rose on their streets.

    “At the end of the day, all we have is each other,” she said.

    To contact Uddo's organization, St. Paul's Homecoming Center, please visit their website, or call: 504-644-4125.

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  • A resident's report: Isaac tests Mississippi town battered by Katrina

    Ellis Anderson

    The Washington Street Pier beachfront picnic pavilion in Bay St. Louis, Miss., about 11:30 a.m. local time Wednesday, soon after high tide. The shelter was constructed as part of Hancock County's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

    By Ellis Anderson

    Ellis Anderson, an activist and artist from Bay St. Louis, Miss., was profiled in Rising from Ruin in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Anderson -- who authored an award-winning book on Katrina called "Under Surge, Under Siege" -- briefly ventured outside Wednesday morning. "It's steady 35 mph with gusts to 60," she said. Two tornado sirens went off and it looks like at least six inches of rain have fallen.

    "But overall, this town’s rebuilt to withstand storms like this without too much of a bump," she said. "Unless we get a lot of lot of tornadoes, I’m betting we’ll have mail delivery tomorrow."

    Anderson sent the image above on Wednesday. On Tuesday, just before Isaac made landfall, Anderson sent along the images and words below.

    Ellis Anderson

    The new, multimillion-dollar seawall was completed by the Corps of Engineers earlier this year and was a popular observation point Tuesday as the winds of Hurricane Isaac started battering the Gulf Coast.

    The railroad bridge in the background above had to be completely rebuilt after Katrina destroyed the original bridge. Note that the water is already rising over the pilings at 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, hours before Isaac was predicted to make landfall.

    Ellis Anderson

    A popular spot for locals to fish, the Dunbar pier on the bay side of the Bay St. Louis peninsula was rebuilt in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the original.  

    Seen above, the sign notifying the public of the pier's expansion -- along with the road that runs alongside the Bay -- were swamped by the rising surge by 4 p.m. Tuesday, making the roads impassable.

    Above, a home built to new higher elevation standards put into place after Hurricane Katrina seems to sit in a lake as the surge begins to push marsh waters up in the lower lying Cedar Point area of Bay St. Louis. 

    Related: Isaac's storm surge causes flooding

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  • Hurricane Isaac makes 2nd landfall ; 'deep flooding' expected after overtopping at levee

    Isaac, now a Category 1 hurricane, has already brought flooding rains to Charleston, S.C. Later Tuesday night the giant storm will move up into much of Louisiana and Mississippi bringing a storm surge threat to coastal cities. New Orleans may see as much as 20 inches of rain. Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore reports from New Orleans.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Updated at 5:06 a.m. ET Wednesday: The center of Hurricane Isaac made its second landfall in southeastern Louisiana early Wednesday, officials said.

    The storm hit just west of Port Fourchon, La., with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph at around 2:15 a.m. local time (3:15 a.m. ET), according to aircraft and radar data from the National Hurricane Center.

    Emergency management officials in Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, reported overtopping on a levee from Braithwaite to White Ditch early on Wednesday. "This will result in significant deep flooding in this area," the National Weather Service said.

    Earlier, Isaac produced a dangerous storm surge along the northern Gulf coast after wobbling back out to sea two hours after its initial landfall on Tuesday night. Flooding from rainfall was expected, the center said.

    The storm surge combined with a high tide will cause normally dry areas near the Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana coast to be flooded by peaks of 6 to 12 feet, the center said. Alabama could see up to 8 feet; the Florida panhandle, 6 feet.

    A 10-foot surge was reported at Shell Beach, La., the center said.

    By 3 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET), the storm was 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, although winds and rain lashed the city that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina seven years ago. The storm was moving northwest at 8 mph. Winds were gusting at up to 78 mph.

     

    Forecasters predicted the storm would arrive in New Orleans early Wednesday and then head for Baton Rouge.

    While not packing nearly the power of Katrina -- which was a Category 3 storm when it slammed New Orleans on August 29, 2005 -- Category 1 Isaac was nevertheless a powerful reminder of New Orleans' vulnerability.

    'Really bad weather'
    The hurricane will be the first test for multibillion-dollar flood defenses built after levees failed under Katrina's storm surge and left large parts of New Orleans under water.

    The hurricane center continued to warn that flooding from rainfall and storm surge remains the storm’s greatest threat. The slow-moving storm is expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain in some spots over two days.

    Hurricane Isaac initially made landfall at 8 p.m. Tuesday in southeastern Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane.


    "It's going to be a long period of really bad weather" for the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts as well as areas inland, National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said. Even before landfall, some flooded roads and power outages were reported in those states.

    New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he expects his city "will get the brunt of it." Nola.com reported.  Entergy New Orleans, the power company that supplies the region, reported outages for more than 300,000 customers.

    "We think that we're well prepared," Landrieu said at a briefing, while emphasizing that much depends on how well residents heed warnings to hunker down.

    New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says "we don't expect a Katrina-like event, but remember there are things about a Category 1 storm that can kill you." Watch his news conference on Isaac preparations.

    No mandatory evacuations were ordered inside New Orleans, which sits behind levees and pumps reinforced after Hurricane Katrina.

    The sewer system in one lakefront community, Northshore Beach, in St. Tammany Parish had to be shut down because floodwaters rose over sewage lift stations, emergency management officials said.

    Related: Follow Isaac's path with our storm tracker
    Related: Images, tweets about Isaac

    While Isaac is well below the intensity of Katrina, its vast size and slow track have forecasters predicting widespread flooding.

    Hundreds of Army National Guard troops took up positions around New Orleans to ward off any threat of looting.

    One man was arrested in Lafourche Parish on Tuesday night after reports he broke into a vehicle and then attempted to break into a house, WDSU reported.

    Sheriff Craig Webre described the alleged act as "a heinous example of someone who truly has no regard for the rights of law-abiding citizens."

    The guard's arrival came as bands of driving rain and stiff winds began battering the city and other parts of the coast. Some 10,000 homes and businesses had lost power in southern Louisiana by late afternoon, as did 6,000 customers in Mobile, Ala.

    New Orleans' Jefferson Parish has many low-lying areas that are outside the Hurricane Protection Levee System. John Young, Jefferson Parish president, joins NewsNation to talk about the dangerous threats to the areas from the storm.

    President Barack Obama added his voice to those of local officials urging residents to hunker down or evacuate if told to do so. "Now's not the time to tempt fate," he said in brief comments Tuesday morning. "Listen to your local officials and follow their directions, including if they tell you to evacuate."

    "The inland flooding from the heavy rainfall could extend hundreds of miles from the coast," Knabb said.

    The streets of New Orleans were virtually empty Tuesday as most heeded the warning to take shelter at home, confident in the city's ability to handle Isaac. NBC's Lester Holt reports from New Orleans.

    Isaac is wide as storms go, with tropical storm-force winds stretching 185 miles from its center.

    By Tuesday afternoon, some beach areas were seeing water lapping onto streets.

    NBC's Lester Holt takes a look at how the legacy of Katrina has residents fleeing for higher ground as Tropical Storm Isaac heads for New Orleans, La. Meanwhile, officials say stronger and higher defenses built since Katrina will hold.

    Rainfall of 7 to 14 inches across the coast as well as inland is likely, and a few places could even see 20 inches, Knabb said.

    Residents should expect "a lot of hazards to contend with, even isolated tornadoes" into Wednesday, Knabb said.

    Isaac was expected to arrive in New Orleans seven years to the day Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars of damage. Levees built or repaired after Katrina are designed to withstand far more than that 12-foot surge, in some cases storm surges as high as 26 feet.

    Mandatory evacuations were issued Monday for unprotected, low-lying areas outside New Orleans, as well as low-lying areas in Mississippi.

    The Dunbar Pier on the bay side of the Bay St. Louis peninsula was rebuilt in 2007 after Katrina completely destroyed the original. The sign notifying the public of the pier's expansion was swamped Tuesday.

    Residents in coastal communities from Louisiana to Mississippi stocked up on food and water and tried to secure their homes, cars and boats. 

    "Right now we’re starting to experience some flooding of low-lying areas along the beachfront," Brian Adam, emergency management director in Mississippi's Hancock County, told NBC News. "We’ve opened two shelters and have about 185 people there."

    In Bay St. Louis, Miss., residents in low-lying areas evacuated while those on high ground were keeping an eye on Isaac, resident Ellis Anderson told NBC News.

    From weather.com: Live updates and analysis

    "It's not expected to be another Katrina," she said. "But everybody is watching it very seriously" because of the potential path that could push water into the area hard hit by Katrina and Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

    Slideshow: Isaac tracks through the Gulf of Mexico

    Alan Diaz / AP

    Tropical Storm Isaac drenches multiple countries as it moves toward Louisiana.

    Launch slideshow

    Gustav "went to the west of New Orleans," she recalled, pushing "all that water into that cup that is the Gulf Coast of Mississippi."

    In New Orleans, a bumper-to-bumper stream of vehicles left the city Monday on a highway toward Baton Rouge in search of higher ground. Others prepared or were forced to ride the storm out.

    Related: America's deadliest hurricanes
    Related: Isaac tests Gulf oil spill defenses
    Related: Bad memories return to New Orleans
    Related: Drought-hit states welcome Isaac's rain

    Along Canal Street in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, crews boarded up the windows of some stores and businesses. 

    Offshore in the Gulf, regulators said that 93 percent of daily oil and 67 percent of daily natural gas production in U.S.-regulated areas have been shut down by the hurricane.

    Isaac has killed at least 22 people and caused significant flooding and damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before skirting the southern tip of Florida on Sunday.

    In the Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Kirk formed about 1,230 miles northeast of of the Northern Leeward Islands and was moving west about 12 mph, the hurricane center reported. There was no immediate threat to land.

    Isaac will put New Orleans' new $15 billion levee system to test for the first time since its post-Katrina upgrade. However, there's one major problem – the levee is only eight feet, well below the expected 12-foot storm surge.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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