Earth Equity News

New Orleans Lets Out a Sigh of Relief as Levees Hold. By Adam Nossiter, Damien Cave, Kareem Fahim and James Barron, NYTimes, September 1, 2008. "[New Orleans,] this nearly deserted city, appeared to have escaped threats of full-scale devastation on Monday when Hurricane Gustav came ashore 70 miles to the southwest, bearing winds and rain far less formidable than earlier forecast. The storm smashed through the bayou country of rural Louisiana, raising fears... But before making landfall, it was downgraded from a Category 3 hurricane to Category 2... and state officials said they believed that their worst fears had not been realized. Hurricane Gustav weakened to a tropical depression early [today] as it moved over central Louisiana… Early Tuesday, it was 135 miles northwest of Lafayette, La., and moving toward the northwest... forecast to move into northeast Texas late Tuesday. The levees in New Orleans were tested by a heavy storm surge but held, even though the repair and reconstruction work from Hurricane Katrina is far from finished. In Hurricane Gustav's wake, waves pounded against a floodwall on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, considered a particularly weak link. Though the water lapped over the wall for hours, there was only ankle-to-knee-deep water on the streets it was protecting, on the edge of the Ninth Ward... Officials said that at least seven people were killed -- four in traffic accidents and three from falling trees in Baton Rouge and Lafayette -- along with three patients who died as they were being evacuated."