UPDATE: How Is Hurricane Isaac Affecting Louisiana? We’ll Keep You Updated
UPDATE: 4:44 p.m. — No school for Jeff Davis Parish Thursday, either.
UPDATE: 4:37 p.m. — Calcasieu and Cameron parish schools will remain closed on Thursday.
UPDATE: 4:03 p.m. Around 800,000 people in Louisiana are without power, and it could be as long as a week before some of them see power again.
UPDATE: 3:04 p.m. — Football games being rescheduled. Sam Houston @ St. Louis rescheduled Saturday at 6 p.m. McCain will travel to Westlake on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game.
UPDATE: 2:37 p.m. — While there was an unconfirmed report of a death in a Gretna fire in the early morning hours today, the first confirmed death from Isaac comes from Vermilion Parish. Carlos Medellin-Guillen, 36, fell to his death after climbing 18 feet up a tree. Medellin-Guillen was reportedly helping friends move a vehicle from under the tree. No word on why he climbed the tree.
UPDATE: 2:33 p.m. — The Times-Picayune has a map showing what happened in the Plaquemines Parish flooding.
UPDATE: 2:12 p.m. – The Louisiana Public Service Commission reports that 32 percent of Louisiana is without power.
UPDATE: 1:59 p.m. — The new coordinates are out from NOAA. 29.8 N and 90.9 W. Wind speed down to 70 mph — which means he’s back to a tropical storm — but Isaac is still moving at 6 mph like a jerk. It’s about 55 miles SSE of Baton Rouge.
UPDATE: 1:50 p.m. – A flash flood breaks out in LaPlace, putting three feet of water in homes there, according to the Weather Channel.
UPDATE: 1:46 p.m. – From Lake Charles City Hall: “Due to strong wind conditions anticipated for today, residents are asked to place their garbage cans and trash out Thursday morning for Thursday pickup and not Wednesday evening.Also, garbage pickup and transit service may be delayed on Thursday due to weather conditions.”
UPDATE 1:25 p.m. — If you need a list of curfews for the Acadiana area, here you go.
UPDATE 1:21 p.m. — New Orleans is under a dusk to dawn curfew until further notice.
UPDATE: 1:10 p.m. – KPLC reports that the Town of Kinder will be under a curfew from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. tonight.
UPDATE: 1 p.m. — Still a hurricane, 75 mph winds, but the barometric pressure is lightening up. Moving NW at 6 mph. Also, officials are starting to investigate looting reports.
UPDATE: 12:44 p.m. — Vernon Parish schools will be closed Thursday, according to KPLC. Over 650,000 Gulf Coast residents are without power.
UPDATE: 12:36 p.m. — Jeff Davis Parish will make a determination on whether or not to close school at 4 p.m. today.
UPDATE: 12:25 p.m. — Isaac is moving NW at 6 mph and the eye is about 10 miles NW of Houma. Otherwise, winds have stayed roughly the same (about 75 mph). Gov. Bobby Jindal is holding a press conference with updates on the storm. First and foremost, meteorologists are saying the storm has nearly stalled.
The eye was expected to reach Baton Rouge at 1 p.m., and that timeframe has been pushed back. Meanwhile, in Plaquemines Parish where the east bank’s eight-foot levees were overtopped by 13-foot storm surges.
While the levees did not break, officials are considering breaking the levee to let the floodwaters back out. Winds, however, are starting to push the waters out of the area, so the levee may not have to be breached. Meanwhile, on the west bank side in Plaquemines Parish, the water has not yet topped the levee but may soon, and so a mandatory evacuation has been put into effect in that area.
Jindal said South Louisiana can expect anywhere from 5 to 20 inches of rain between now and Friday, depending on the speed of the storm. Fifty-six parishes have made a disaster declaration.
UPDATE: 11:17 a.m. — Sand bags are now available for Calcasieu Parish residents at the Lake Charles Civic Center.
UPDATE: 10:51 a.m. – City-Parish President Joey Durel announces that Lafayette will go under a curfew starting at 6 p.m. tonight until 6 a.m. Thursday.
UPDATE: 10:44 a.m. — Acadia Parish schools will close for Thursday, too.
UPDATE: 10:36 a.m. — LSU has closed down for Thursday. The Tigers, however, are still playing on Saturday.
UPDATE: 10:04 a.m. – Louisiana State Police have shut down I-10 near LaPlace due to flooding. You weren’t planning on driving to New Orleans today, were you?
UPDATE 9:55 a.m. — Latest NOAA coordinates are 26.9 N and 90.7 W, centered at Houma, La. Wind speed is down to 75 mph, but the storm has slowed even more, moving northwest at only 6 mph.
UPDATE: 9:50 a.m. – The City of New Orleans is now maintaining a list of impassible and flooded streets.
UPDATE: 9:38 a.m. – A father and son pair have single-handedly rescued at least 23 Plauquemines Parish residents. Louisiana people help one another, cher.
UPDATE: 9:35 a.m. — The Army Corps of Engineers wants to pump the floodwaters out of Plaquemines Parish, but Parish President Billy Nungesser said “he wants to cut a hole in the Mississippi River levee to drain the Braithwaite area.,” according to the Times-Picayune.
UPDATE: 9:11 a.m. – Since the storm has inched over to the west, Baton Rouge will now be on the east side of the storm — the more dangerous side. The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that the city is anticipating 10-13 inches of rain as the storm moves at a snail’s pace — 7-8 mph.
ORIGINAL POST: 8:50 a.m. — After lurching ashore near Port Fourchon this morning, Hurricane Isaac has been dropping rain and pushing storm surge into Southeastern Louisiana all morning. Nearly half a million people are without power in the New Orleans area this morning, according to Entergy — and a levee was overtopped in Plaquemines Parish, stranding residents in flood waters.
The Times-Picayune reports this morning that the 8-foot levees were no match for the 13-foot storm surge in Plaquemines Parish south of St. Bernard Parish. Rescue efforts are underway to nab the residents now stranded by the floodwaters. The National Guard is mounting rescue efforts from St. Bernard Parish. Plaquemines Parish is not protected by the same levee system the Army Corps of Engineers has constructed for New Orleans.
Parish officials have received calls from a woman at Willspoint who said she received 9 feet of water and is in her attic. There are reports that the Woodlawn fire station between Braithwaite and White Ditch, which received no water during Katrina, has received 5 feet.
That 18-mile stretch of parish levees averages about 8.5 feet in height and Army Corps of Engineers officials have forecasted that storm surge may be reaching 13 feet. Corps officials only are confirming reports that levee has been overtopped in two spots, in Braithwaite and then further south in an east bank area called Bel Air, river mile 65. Corps officials are saying that there are no confirmed reports of breaches, which suggest failures in levees.