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Gustav Fails To Defeat Fragile Levee System

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By ROBERT TANNER and VICKI SMITH

The Associated Press

Published: September 2, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans can get back to its comeback.

Traumatized after Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters broke through the levees that protect this city, Hurricane Gustav ended up a mere interruption in rebuilding.

The fragile levees survived their first test in three years, holding firm and sheltering this saucer-shaped city from devastating floods. Residents can breathe a little easier - and start plotting their return to New Orleans.

"I just want to get back there ASAP," said Hester Smith, 38, who had evacuated to a shelter in Milton, Fla.

It won't be without some obstacles for residents of New Orleans. But Gustav didn't cause the life-changing damage wrought by Katrina three years ago.

The storm also swirled into the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of Louisiana's Cajun country, an already fragile terrain on the state's southeastern coast.

In Plaquemines Parish, a levee was in danger of collapse, and officials scrambled to fortify it. Roofs were torn from homes, trees toppled and roads flooded. More than 1 million homes were without power. And the extent of any damage to the oil and gas industry was unclear.

But the biggest fear - that the levees surrounding New Orleans would break - hadn't been realized.

Wind-driven water sloshed over the top of the Industrial Canal's floodwall - the same structure that broke with disastrous consequences during Katrina - and several Ninth Ward streets close by were flooded with ankle- to knee-deep water. Still, city officials and the Army Corps of Engineers expressed confidence the levees would hold.

Maj. Tim Kurgan, a Corps spokesman, said late in the day: "We don't anticipate any problems, but we're still watching this storm because it has not passed the area yet."

Gustav blew ashore around 10:30 a.m. near Cocodrie, a low-lying community 72 miles southwest of New Orleans.
Forecasters had feared a catastrophic Category 4 storm, but Gustav weakened as it drew close to land, coming ashore as a Category 2 with 110 mph winds. It was downgraded to a tropical storm over central Louisiana Monday night.

Authorities reported seven deaths related to the storm, all traffic deaths, including four people killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree. Before arriving in the United States, Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean.

In the days before the storm struck, nearly 2 million people fled coastal Louisiana under a mandatory evacuation order - a stark contrast from Katrina. Those evacuated included tens of thousands of poor, elderly and sick people who were put on buses and trains and taken to shelters and hotel rooms in several surrounding states.

Damage To Be Assessed

It could be days until the full extent of the damage is known, especially in the fishing villages and oil-and-gas towns of bayou country, where rapid erosion in recent decades has destroyed swamps and robbed the area of a natural buffer against storms.

Keith Cologne of Chauvin, not far from Cocodrie, looked dejected after talking by telephone to a friend who didn't evacuate. "They said it's bad, real bad. There are roofs lying all over. It's all gone," said Cologne, staying at a hotel in Orange Beach, Ala.

In St. Mary Parish, to the west, Deputy Sheriff Troy Brown cleared roads with a chain saw as he went out to assess damage. He found uprooted trees, houses without some shingles, but few signs of a monster hit. "Even the mobile homes are sitting there in one piece," Brown said.

One community in southeastern Louisiana feared its levee wouldn't hold. As many as 300 homes in Plaquemines Parish were threatened, and the parish president called a TV station to plead with any residents who stayed behind to flee.

Waiting To Come Home

It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. To the east of the city, state officials were unable to reach anyone at Port Fourchon, a vital energy industry hub where huge amounts of oil and gas are piped inland to refineries.

President Bush skipped the opening day of a scaled-back Republican National Convention to monitor the storm's progress, and both Republicans and Democrats asked supporters to text-message donations to the Red Cross to help victims of the hurricane.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hinted the city could be reopened as early as today, once the city assesses damage. Drinking water continued to flow in the city and the pumps that keep it dry never shut down, two critical service failings that contributed to Katrina's toll. But two-thirds of the city's electric customers were without power, as the storm damaged transmission lines that snapped like rubber bands in the wind and knocked 35 substations out.

The decision to reopen the city was eagerly awaited by those who fled the coast and watched the storm unfold on TV from shelters across the region.

Fights broke out at an overcrowded shelter in Shreveport. People who had slept, eaten and lived on cots for days struggled to get news about home from the lone television in the entire center. Doctors worried about medications running out, and seven people were hospitalized, all in stable condition.

"People are desperate. They don't know if they are going to have a place to go home to," said Emma McClure, 37, who was at the shelter with her three children, three sisters and some 20 nephews.

GUSTAV VS. KATRINA

Landfall

Gustav: Monday, Sept. 1, 2008, about 10:30 a.m. near Cocodrie, La., about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans

Katrina: Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, about 7:10 a.m. near Buras, La., about 55 miles southeast of New Orleans

Strength

Gustav: Reached Category 4, landfall as Category 2, winds near 110 mph

Katrina: Reached Category 5, landfall as Category 3, winds near 125 mph

Storm Surge

Gustav: Reports of 12 feet high in the Industrial Canal, east side of New Orleans

Katrina: Estimated at 27 feet high in Hancock, Miss. (It was difficult to measure in New Orleans because buildings washed away, leaving no high water marks.)

The Associated Press

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