Hurricane Isaac Aftermath (New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Plaquemine: power lines, how much, house)

[rburnett]

It seems NOLA has come out relatively unscathed. Wind damage is minimal. The new levee's and surge barriers did their job and everything inside of the hurricane protection system is bone dry. There are widespread power outages though. ~75% of the residents are without power (as am I). The CBD, Warehouse District and French quarter are all 100% up and running due to the underground power lines. The RTA is running skeleton transit routes for the time being.

Outside the levee system, it's a different story. Some more rural and suburban areas downriver and upriver from New Olreans have recieved Katrina like flooding. Areas of St. John Parish near LaPlace were underwater. Lower St. Bernard(again, outside of the levee's) received water as did some of Plaquemines Parish. The Northshore areas close to the lake have received Katrina like storm surge flooding from Lake Ponchatrain.

[joshisanonymous]

I heard at least one person on the news imply that the improved levees in NOLA may have attributed to flooding in places like Plaquemines which newscasters were saying has never had a problem with flooding. I know nothing about all this but that was the first thing that popped into my head too. Were all these places skipped when levee improvements were considered?

Other than that, I'm just shocked by the power issue. The storm only remained a hurricane for 12 hours and that was enough to, by one estimate, kill power for 40% of Louisiana? I literally arrived in NOLA 4 days before the storm and thought it would be a breeze, and it was, except for going 3 days without power (done people, I'm sure are without right now still). My impoverished town in NJ deals with tropical storms all the time and I can't recall everlosing power for more than 4 hours. I understand it takes a long time to restore power to 800k households but why did 800k households lose power on a veritable tropical storm in the first place? Did everyone up their game after Katrina except Entergy or something?

Just looked at the 8pm update for power restoration and it still looks horrible. I guess I got lucky. Saw Entergy trucks all over Uptown today and figured they were gonna get all the biggest problems (and the bulk of the households) fixed then focus on isolated issues but Uptown is still at 25%. Pretty disheartening.

[joshisanonymous]

Oops, nevermind; I didn't get lucky. Power was restored for a few hours until a transformer just blew and cut power to even more places than those who were powerless before. Guess we're working backwards before we go forwards. Really don't have faith in this energy company.

[Ketabcha]

Is what I am hearing true?

I've heard that the power repair trucks in the 9th Ward just sat empty while the guys stood around.

I also heard that the trucks delivering water and ice never showed up in the 9th Ward today.

Could that be true?

[annie_himself]

I'm sure those guys have been putting in 14 hr days. Its likely a disgruntled citizen saw them as they drove by and got that impression. Or possibly they weren't able to work due to circumstances that are beyond our knowledge.

[texdav]

It take abvout 3 days for the crews to really get the materials and the logics i place to start as assessment has to be doe first thing so they can know ehere to go.In marsh outter areas that feed the netr cities and are i the circuit it can seem like nothig is being doen because its first thigs first .Just logiaclly setup to feed and house thousands of electical workers is a huge under taking and often large tents have to be setup and huge kitchens to prepared and serve the food.Those guys work long ;hot jobs in after such a disaster.After Rita Energy brought i 10K people in my county and it was a huge task jsut to gat the logics support setup so they could eat and sleep in campig type conditions.

[MetroBTR]

The city received torrential rainfall and tropical storm and hurricane force winds for hours on end. I've heard uptown is a literal tree disaster.

The Interstate was closed for days due to high water, hindering crews' ability to travel throughout the region...remember, many in Baton Rouge and points north are also out of power following the storm. There is alot of ground to cover.

You know, New Orleans was nearly wiped from the face of the earth seven years ago. Give them a break for having a shoddy, piecemeal electrical system. Be thankful they have electricity at all.

[tinalimey]

We got power back yesterday. We're so lucky - some areas in NOLA might not get power beyond Wednesday, and areas outside of the levy system were so badly hit it could be weeks. Let alone those poor folks who lost everything through floods.

[westcoast68]

I dont know how much this means coming from someone out west, but my thoughts and prayers go out to you all out there that got hit by Isaac. Ive been thru snow storms but I dont know what its like to lose everything.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

All of New Orleans power lines are above ground on power/telephone poles. It's very easy to take down a section in a storm, which means everyone further down the line loses power. Much of south Louisiana was built in the early 20th century (no underground lines then) and much of the ground is too wet for underground power. So, any storm, not just hurricanes, brings power outages. A hurrican just makes it more widespread.