BREAKING: Levee Overtopped in New Orleans Area - Evacs Underway!! Winds over 100mph!!

I don't get your reasoning. The rain and water is putting alot of pressure on the levees so it makes sense to punch a hole in it somewhere to relieve the pressure. The storm is moving slowly and will continue to dump rain on the land which will drain into the Mississippi and continue to make the river rise or possibly top the levees. Plaquamine parish is a very long parish. Drive about 20 miles down and there are not very many people or communities much further down there. So if they punch the hole where it will do the least damage to property, I don't see the problem. If there are any small communities down river, they likely already flooded from the surge. Punching a hole in the levy of the Mississippi will likely just release water into the swamps.

I'm not sure what happened in Braithwaite, but it is on the east side of the river and has the Gulf less than a mile on its other side. I can't believe people actually stayed, surrounded by water on both sides. They were told the surge would be 6 to 12ft and since this was such a slow moving storm the water just kept piling on them from the Gulf would be my guess. Look at Google. That is all swamp land behind them. Marsh and saltwater. Why would anyone stay there during a hurricane. Unless your house is on stilts, I wouldn't even live there!

I believe these were among the dead, but the numbers were kept low in order not to panic everyone.

Easier to just tell people they were sent to FEMA housing. Then people would not keep searching for the truth. Just like Andrew in Miami in '92. From a National Guardsman who was down there....he SAW THEM just bull-dozing hundreds and hundreds of bodies into huge make-shift holes/graves dug in the ground. I think the "official" death toll was less than 50. Not true.

It happened again in Katrina, and it will happen again now. With lots of luck, that sinkhole will not blow them ALL up to kingdom come.

One wrong move and you sit with a situation that could cascade into unforeseen consequences and cause a tragedy of epic proportions. I hope not.

a slow moving cat 1/ts that will rival Katrina. Poor Biloxi! Those bands of rain are relentless. Hang in there.

Yep.

What about Stephanie Abrams standing in the street with almost no rain falling hour after hour?
Meanwhile two blocks away, Jim Cantore and Al Roker are playing stupid games, push-ups and whatnot but only in ONE SPOT.
See, TWC reporters all were strangely "sheltered" until they walked into a path of wind. Whether a particular spot on a curb (not middle of the street as you might expect), or walking out from behind a spindly bush, and then out of the zone again with, oh hey wind drops unexpectedly.

These guys were not being drenched by Isaac. What was going on all day in these reportings?
Stephanie Abrams acted practically drunk and walked over to the same storefront all day. Same will all of them really.
They never ventured more than a 10 foot radius all day.
Chroma Key?

The only interesting parts were all the white SUVs and army
trucks they showed.

Not sure what you mean.
But, does anyone know when your pumping stations keep the water out of NOLA and all around the outside of the bowl is also flooded already, where does the water go exactly?

The Army Corps of Engineers is still working on that glitch.

The Army Corps of engineers is working on the embassy in Irawq. (sic)

Didn't you think it was funny? There they are again in the blowing wind trying to stand up wearing different outfits, ....are they different guys? The 2 guys trying to stand show. Come on, it was funny. I don't know why they did it but I am glad they did.

<Ruefully laughs>
So NOLA is flooding and they pump it to the outside of the bowl which eventually tops over and starts flooding back into the city, which triggers the pumps to the outside of the bowl, which floods and tops over and floods the city?

-----------> <----------- Glitch?

The only place it can go. Either in the river or in the lake. No where else to put it.

Now regarding the planned breach of the levee. Weather channel just explained it. The town of Braithwaith was flooded from the Gulf side levee. The town has a levee on the Mississippi river side and a smaller levee on the backside by the Gulf. So, the town, as all communities in Plaquemines parish, basically sit in a bowl surrounded by levees. They are planning on breeching the levee on the gulf side to let the water the flooded homes are sitting in drain back to the gulf.

They are also ordering a mandatory evacuation of Belle Chase which is on the west side of the river because the Mississippi is overtopping the levee there in Belle Chase.

This town didn't flood during Katrina. The new levee system that was put in place around New Orleans caused this town to flood in my opinion. Bad planning and execution by the Corps of Engineers.

No not quite. Water should flow down the river back into the Gulf. The problem here is that the storm is so slow moving that it is still pushing water from the Gulf up into the river. So you have fresh rain water flowing down the river and salt water being pushed up the river causing the river to top the levees in spots. If this was a faster moving storm they wouldn't be running into these glitches.

Or we can just blame it on Obama. He hates white people you know.

HAha.
OK. So they were flooding from the GULF side levee and their solution is to blow another hole in the GULF side levee to "let the water out".

That's as bad as the CNN version they got from TWC earlier today where they were saying the River Side levee was topping over and they needed to blow a hole in the river side levee to "let it all out again"!!!

Genius...sheer governmental genius.

The water will just flood equally on both sides until it reaches a mean level.

for want of a better word....they were sacrificed

I'd be boiling mad if I lived there and lost my house and all my belongings. Who are they to play "god"?!

Katrina was a fast mover and followed a slighter more easter path at landfall. That is the difference.

Eastern path.

You don't understand wind direction of hurricanes. The wind is now blowing in a different direction so the wind is no longer pushing the gulf water into the town. The water has likely receeded on the gulf side of the levee. So you cut a hole in the levee and the water drains back into the gulf.

Indeed.

However, they just want Plaquemines to play "Isaac" is the more appropriate meme here.

I noticed they were very snotty saying that it wasn't part of the "FEDERAL LEVEE SYSTEM".
Like was there an option and they opted out?

I didn't get the 'tude they had with this Parish.

Or it could be one of us doesn't understand the concept of flooding.
It's where you can't tell where the Gulf ends and Lake Ponchartrain ends for awhile, and all those little bayous flow together as one.

Exactly...so the residents of this community have their homes flooded to save the damn ninth ward.

^^^This^^^ And this is under local control. They have been to this rodeo a time or two before and I tend to think they know what they are doing.

They spent 14 Billion of my tax dollars supporting a federal network, in N.O. but we still have to make local sacrifices.

They spent 2 Trillion on catching bin laden. And according to CBS Network news tonight on 8/19/2012 the marine/seal says "we got 'em." Buttressed up with an interview with Romney talking about "fixing" stuff.

Next time just let me know. It is fun to watch decrepit old men solving the worlds problems.

ike in galveston/boliver?

Well, I don't know. What if all these well-meaning plans backfire and actually make the situation much worse.

Well excuse the hell out of my ignorance here, but one would think that 15 billion dollars spent on a levee system would kind of negate the need for blowing holes in it?

Maybe they could have saved the billions and spent a couple grand on dynamite?
Or maybe they could build in permanent controllable floodgates to open and close as needed in appropriate drainage locations?

Sheesh.

ICE is a dick. don't fuck with the DH.

I heard they opened 63 evacuation centers between Florida and Texas earlier today.
That don't bode well.
I mean what better way to hide the deaths?

I'll bet there are thousands of homes almost totally underwater all along the coast. Insurance won't cover any of them because it's not wind damage, it's flood damage. WHAT A MESS!