Evacuations Set in Louisiana as Rising Water Traps Dozens

Image: A storm surge pounded the seawall Tuesday along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain as Hurricane Isaac came ashore. (Skip Bolen/European Pressphoto Agency)

nytimes.com - John Schwartz, Campbell Robertson, Kim Severson, David Thier - August 29th, 2012

Louisiana officials on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of some 3,000 people in a parish outside New Orleans and are continuing to rescue dozens of others in the same area trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters caused by Hurricane Isaac.

Plaquemines Parish has emerged so far as the area of southeastern Louisiana that has received the most significant damage from the storm, which continues to crawl over the coastal area, carrying with it 75 mile per hour winds and driving rain that has led to calamitous flooding.

“We haven’t seen anything like this, not even with Katrina,” said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, located about 95 miles from New Orleans. “Those areas that didn’t flood for Katrina were flooded for this storm. If this is a Category 1 storm, I don’t want to see anything stronger.”

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