As Hurricane Issac bears down on New Orleans Mitt Romney and political journalists have a shared interest - getting air time on television news programs that are paying close attention to the storm. That gives Romney and the Republicans an opportunity since most voters will only see highlights of his big speech. 
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Isaac pounded New Orleans and the northern Gulf Coast, delivering gale-force winds, heavy rain and the promise of flooding across an area from Louisiana’s southern coast to the Florida Panhandle.
Water spilled over a levee in Plaquemines Parish in southeastern Louisiana, which will result in “significant deep flooding in this area,” the National Weather Service reported, citing emergency management officials.
Isaac arrived yesterday, a day before the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,800 people, and produced a dangerous storm surge, testing rebuilt levees protecting New Orleans that failed in 2005.
Isaac, with winds extending 175 miles (282 kilometers) from its center, may produce as much as 20 inches of rain in the region over the next two days, according to the National Hurricane Center. The center of Isaac made a second landfall just west of Port Fourchon about 3:15 a.m. New York time. At 6:30 a.m., almost 428,000 customers of Entergy New Orleans Inc. were without power, according to the company’s website.
“Isaac is with us in a very significant way,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu said during a news conference yesterday as the wind howled outside City Hall. “We’re in the heart of this fight.”
Wind Speeds
The storm initially reached the swampy coast of Louisiana about 6:45 p.m. in Plaquemines Parish near the Mississippi River’s mouth, 90 miles southeast of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Center reported. Winds had top speeds of 80 miles per hour, spurring mandatory evacuations in at least eight parishes in the New Orleans area and warnings of tornadoes and flash flooding.
The town of Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish was being evacuated this morning because of the overtopped levee, WWL-TV in New Orleans reported on its website. Emergency management officials in the parish said the levee was overtopped from Braithwaite to White Ditch.
At 7 a.m., Isaac was about 50 miles south-southwest of New Orleans, moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour, according to a hurricane center advisory. A flood threat from heavy rains was likely through today and tonight, the advisory said. Isaac “continues to lash New Orleans,” the advisory said.
Slow Going
The slow-moving hurricane threatened to linger and cause flooding in the city that could be “really problematic,” Landrieu said. Still, the mayor said he was optimistic the levees would hold.
Winds will prevent power-line repairs until speeds fall to less than 30 mph, Charles Rice, chief executive officer of Entergy New Orleans, said at a news conference.
Isaac has stopped 93 percent of U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 67 percent of natural-gas output, and forced evacuations from 503 production platforms and 49 rigs, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said yesterday. Six Louisiana refineries were shut.
President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi. He said federal response teams are ready.
Water pushed by the hurricane could cause flooding to reach as much as 12 feet in normally dry parts of southeast Louisiana and Mississippi if the peak occurred at high tide, meteorologists said.
Rainfall
Rainfall may reach as much as 14 inches, with 20 inches in isolated areas, according to the hurricane center.
After Katrina, a $14.5 billion Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System was built with strengthened and improved levees, floodwalls, pump stations and surge barriers, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“This is absolutely the best shape we’ve ever been in,” Susan Maclay, president of the board of commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West, said yesterday in a interview.
Maclay said Isaac was “a perfect scenario” to test the system because it may identify any flaws before a more powerful storm.
