Isaac's Last Hurra!

High water, failing lock threatens Louisiana homes

By Greg Botelho and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN

updated 9:21 AM EDT, Sun September 2, 2012

A heavy band of storms hovers ominously over New Orleans in the aftermath of Isaac on Thursday.
(CNN) -- A rain-swollen river threatened to flood hundreds of homes in one southeastern Louisiana parish Sunday as the remnants of Hurricane Isaac drifted across the Southeast.

Mandatory evacuations were issued Saturday night for portions of Louisiana's St. Tammany Parish, along the Mississippi state line, where the Pearl River threatened to flood hundreds of homes. The most pressing issue was the potential failure of a lock on a man-made canal that juts off the river, where authorities released some water Saturday to relieve pressure on the structure.

"We have a list of 20 to 25 neighborhoods that it could affect," parish President Pat Brister said Sunday. "I don't have a number of people at this current point and time, but it would affect several neighborhoods."

Residents won't be allowed to return until the structural integrity of the lock is assured, parish officials said.

Oil containers and railroad cars sit in Isaac's flood waters in Braithwaite, Louisiana.
Forecasters project the Pearl to crest Monday at 19.5 feet, more than five feet above flood stage. That will result in "major flooding" of at least two subdivisions near the banks and threaten areas in the southeastern corner of the parish, according to the National Weather Service.

The remnants of Isaac, meanwhile, moved to the northeast early Sunday, after scattering much-needed rain on parts of the drought-ridden lower Midwest. Missouri and Illinois both saw up to six inches of rain in some areas on Saturday.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning early Sunday for portions of Kentucky and Tennessee as well as the central Appalachian Mountains.

Isaac is blamed for at least 19 deaths in Haiti and at least four more in Louisiana and Mississippi after making landfall last week as a Category 1 hurricane -- on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina -- near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

A tree toppled by Isaac stretches across the roof of a food stand in Arabi, Louisiana.
A tree blown over from Hurricane Isaac lies atop a cemetery tomb in Plaquemines Parish.
The storm posed the first real test to New Orleans following a $14.5 billion federal effort to reconstruct the city's flood control system after it failed during Katrina in 2005. Katrina killed nearly 1,800 people, most when the storm overwhelmed the levee system and flooded the city.

Though much weaker than Katrina when it came ashore, Isaac moved slowly and dumped enormous amounts of rain on Louisiana and Missouri. In Plaquemines Parish, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, homes and businesses flooded after a parish-maintained back levee failed. Officials were intentionally breaching levees in strategic areas in the parish, in hopes of getting "the bulk of this water out in five to seven days," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands in the region were without power early Sunday, including at least 320,000 Entergy Louisiana customers, officials said

Residents began returning home over the weekend in Helena, Mississippi, where National Guard troops rescued hundreds trapped by rising waters brought on by Isaac. Annie Judge returned home Saturday to find more than four feet of water inside her home.

"Clothes, my laptop, a bunch of baby stuff, pictures," all ruined, she told CNN affiliate WLOX. "All the furniture is ruined."

CNN's David Ariosto contributed to this report.

Waves from Hurricane Isaac pummel Ken Combs Pier in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Waves from Hurricane Isaac smash against a warning sign at a flooded beach in Biloxi, Mississippi.

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