[StBernard] Article from the Lafayette Daily Advertiser

[Westley Annis]

Article published Sep 23, 2005
Water pours into 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish

John Hill 
Louisiana Gannett News 
NEW ORLEANS - Water was pouring back into the Katrina-flooded Lower 9th Ward
Friday morning through the patched seawall in the Industrial Canal, rising
to waist-high by midday on the east side of the canal.

The water was spilling into the Arabi area of St. Bernard Parish from the
same portion of the seawall that broke after Katrina near four weeks ago.

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially was calling it an
"overflow," it was obvious that a waterfall was growing in intensity over
the course of Friday morning. The water looked like a 50- to 100-foot wide
waterfall spilling into the Lower 9th Ward, the lowest part of New Orleans.

[Decker, Bill] 
"This is an overage," said Capt. Sean Connelly, a member of the Corps of
Engineers who was surveying the water flow from the east side of the North
Claiborne Street drawbridge over the Industrial Canal.

[Decker, Bill] 
"It's not a breach, it's an overflow," he said.

[Decker, Bill] 
Some 300 feet north of the drawbridge, water was seeping under a floodgate
in an industrial plant on the west, or downtown, side of the canal, close to
North Galvez Street. But it was more of a slow leak than a major flow,

However, about 10 blocks north, or closer to Lake Pontchartain, water was
flowing strongly into the downtown, or west side of the canal on the
opposite bank. 

The water was whitecapping across the north side of the France Road/Alvar
Road overpass over the industrial railroad tracks along Florida Avenue on
the downtown New Orleans side of the canal, nearing the turning basin that
connects the canal with the Intracoastal waterway.

[Decker, Bill] 
Nearby, a new housing development, the water was rising to the raised porch
levels, but far below the high-water mark on the sides of the houses.
First-floor windows had been opened to help dry the flooded first floors of
the new houses.

[Decker, Bill] 
Brig. Gen. Miles Deering, head of the National Guard forces in New Orleans,
arrived to survey the waterfall into the Lower Ninth Ward. Atop the
drawbridge on the west side, winds gusted to 40 knots.


"Obviously, there has been a breach or an overflow on the east side,"
Deering said.

"You can't do anything about Mother Nature," Deering said, blaming the water
on the Rita storm surge and periodic rains, which were predicted to get
worse overnight Friday.

He was pulling National Guard troops from the Lower 9th Ward.

Mayor Ray Nagin said there was no choice other than "to let nature take its
course."

As soon as Rita passes the New Orleans area, the Army Corps of Engineers
would be back at work on the section of the seawall originally breached in
Katrina, he said.