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                    Isaac Causes Minor Damage to New Orleans

   by Brian Padden

   NEW ORLEANS -- Tropical storm Isaac moved away from New Orleans
   Thursday, causing only minor damage, but flooded areas outside the
   city, triggering evacuations and rescue operations as waters quickly
   rose.
   North and south of New Orleans the storm left hundreds of homes under
   water.  Fears of an imminent failure of a dam in Mississippi prompted
   authorities to order the immediate evacuation of 60,000 residents in
   nearby communities in both Louisiana and Mississippi.
   Thousands of people have moved into shelters.  Along the shores of Lake
   Pontchartrain near New Orleans, officials sent scores of buses and
   dozens of high-water vehicles to help evacuate about 3,000 people.
   New Orleans itself seemed to escape the brunt of the storm.  Residents
   are back out on the street. Crews are cleaning up debris, and where
   there is power, businesses are beginning to reopen.
   The multi-billion-dollar improvement to the city's levee system that
   failed during Hurricane Katrina seven years ago passed its first major
   test, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
   The levees held in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, where in 2005 a levee was
   breached and caused significant flooding.  The damage this time was
   relatively minor, with fallen trees and downed power lines.
   The Ninth Ward also is the area where actor Brad Pitt and the Make It
   Right Foundation built a number of hurricane-proof homes for local
   residents.
   "This time I thank God for Brad Pitt," said  Ninth Ward resident Gloria
   Guy.  After Hurricane Katrina flooded her neighborhood in 2005, she
   waited nine hours on the roof of her house to be rescued.  She said the
   foundation convinced her that the reinforced windows, the deep-seated
   foundation and the raised elevation of the house would provide shelter
   from most storms.
   "He told me I ain't got nothing to worry about cause it's nine feet off
   the ground.  He says, 'If something comes you ain't got to run.
   Stay.'  And I stayed.  So I didn't have no problem.  The only problem
   the electric went out.  That was the only problem," Guy said.
   Melba Leggett Barnes, who also owns a hurricane-proof house, says of
   course there are times she and her neighbors will have to evacuate, but
   she is confident the house will still be standing when she returns.
   "Everybody knows what to do and when to go.  It's up to the individual
   but everybody knows when it's passed a Category Two, its time to get
   out of here.  I don't care what kind of house you got," Barnes said.
   Barnes and more than one million residents in the region were without
   power due to the storm, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
   The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Isaac continues to move slowly
   northwestward.
   Meanwhile, the Miami-based hurricane center says Hurricane Kirk formed
   Thursday over the open Atlantic Ocean, about 1,700 kilometers northeast
   of the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/new-orleans-storm-isaac/1499010.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/new-orleans-storm-isaac/1499010.html