In La., Miss., 'heartbreaking' path to recovery from Isaac

KENNER, La.. – Although efforts to keep New Orleans safe in the path of a hurricane proved effective, people in surrounding parishes have been left to cope this week with the impact of Hurricane Isaac's punishing rains and winds.

By Douglas Collier, The (Shreveport, La.) Times

Eric Dixon, right, clears out debris from his son's bedroom with help from his friend Paul Matar in the Cambridge area of LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish, La.

By Douglas Collier, The (Shreveport, La.) Times

Eric Dixon, right, clears out debris from his son's bedroom with help from his friend Paul Matar in the Cambridge area of LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish, La.

Residents here — and in Metairie, Plaquemines, LaPlace and elsewhere — sorted through the soggy mess as floodwaters receded, leaving damaged homes, decaying dead animals, scattered debris — and, in some cases, despair.

In LaPlace, where residents told harrowing stories of trying to escape chest-high waters that poured into their modest middle-class neighborhood from lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, Mary Dixon and her family started the process of rebuilding.

The family's possessions — chairs, beds, TVs, china hutch and more — were piled on the front lawn and sidewalk. Similar piles lined the streets of the city's Cambridge neighborhood where residents lost nearly everything to floodwaters that rose 4½ to 5 feet.

"How do you tell your 4-year-old there is no home to go to?" asked Dixon, 36, who relocated to LaPlace after losing her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina seven years earlier. "It's heartbreaking."

Little impact from Katrina, Gustav and other hurricanes lulled residents into a false sense of security, Dixon and others said.

"Everyone stayed," said Dixon, who described escaping floodwaters with her husband, Eric, two sons and mother. "We didn't have a chance."

Some of the remnant storminess from Hurricane Isaac could bring more rain and the potential for flash floods to the eastern Gulf Coast this weekend. The threat is not as high for the Louisiana Gulf Coast, however.

There is a chance this "piece of the former Isaac" could regenerate into a tropical depression, or perhaps a weak tropical storm, over the next couple of days in the central Gulf, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Jon Erdman. A depression becomes a named storm when its winds reach 39 mph; if it gets a name, it would be called Nadine.

The storm, not forecast to reach hurricane strength, could make landfall along the Florida Panhandle or west coast of Florida on Sunday, said Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters.

During a break from tearing out drywall and throwing out waterlogged possessions, Dixon and her sister Judy Cimo looked up and waved as President Obama's helicopter flew overhead to survey flood ravaged areas.

"We are going to be back, we are going to rebuild, and we are going to be stronger," Cimo said.

In Plaquemines Parish this week, residents struggled to return to normalcy as local and state officials and the National Guard worked to get food, water, ice and other necessities into Port Sulphur, Venice and other communities that have been cut off since Isaac made landfall Aug. 29.

In Ironton, an unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Imenii St. Cyr and his mother returned to their mobile home to retrieve clothes and what few belongings weren't damaged.

St. Cyr, who lost his home in Katrina, said he wasn't sure when the family would be allowed back and was frustrated.

"It's my home — it feels bad not to be able to come back home," St. Cyr said.

There is no electricity throughout much of the parish, cellphone service is sometimes sporadic. and most communities remain under a boil-water advisory. Many homes along the highway are inaccessible, surrounded by floodwater.

The smell of rotting dead animals — including cattle and horses — permeates the air. Standing, brackish water was filled with tree trunks and limbs, plastic bottles, ice chests, barrels, appliances, sheds and other debris. Stranded cattle stared forlornly at passing vehicles.

Officials were turning their focus toward helping displaced residents return from shelters in Shreveport and to help those who may not be returning to their homes for some time with rent assistance, she said.

"They are going to have to start over," Campbell said.

Meanwhile, in Picayune, Miss., residents were trying to recover from 20 inches of rainfall and the worst flooding the town has ever seen. In the hardest-hit neighborhood, hundreds of people lost almost everything they owned. Some, including the Sheffield family, had to be rescued from their home last week, wondering what, if anything, would be left to salvage when they returned.

"It was overwhelming to me," Ann Sheffield, 68, said. "I was in a daze. I just didn't realize it would be like that."

This week, her husband, Jerry, 80, took trips to and from his garage, transporting debris with a wheelbarrow. Ann followed close behind, heaping remnants of their lives onto a pile of ruins in the front yard.

Bath also reports for The Times of Shreveport, La. Contributing: Doyle Rice in McLean, Va.; Brian Eason, The Clarion-Ledger, in Jackson, Miss.

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Remnant of Hurricane Isaac lurks in Gulf of Mexico

NEW ORLEANS – If a well-traveled remnant of last week's Hurricane Isaac becomes a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico, it would be a rare but not unprecedented event, forecasters say.

NOAA

A satellite image shows the remnants of Hurricane Isaac spinning in the Gulf of Mexico.

NOAA

A satellite image shows the remnants of Hurricane Isaac spinning in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2005, a remnant from a tropical depression that dissipated near Puerto Rico eventually became part of a new depression, which became the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina.

"This is the only example that we can find in the modern era where the partial remains of a system went on to regenerate and, so, get a different designation," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Todd Kimberlain said Thursday.

Isaac struck the Gulf Coast last week, dumping heavy rain across southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and pushing in storm surge that led to widespread flooding. Thousands of homes were damaged in Louisiana, and many were left without power for days. It then moved inland across Arkansas and through the Midwest before coming back down over the Gulf.

On Wednesday, National Weather Service meteorologist Shawn O'Neill referred to the remnant as "the spawn of Isaac."

Other systems have lost tropical characteristics over land and become tropical storms again over water. Classifying a system as tropical depends on scientific measurements to determine its circulation and how well organized the system is, among other factors.

Hurricane Ivan in 2004 lasted more than 22 days in one form or another from the time it was born as a tropical depression, according to online Hurricane Center archives. It walloped south Alabama and the Florida panhandle as a Category 3 hurricane, then lost tropical characteristics as it traveled north and then went back out to sea off the coast of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Then it headed south, crossed Florida as a low pressure system and became Tropical Storm Ivan again in the Gulf. It hit Louisiana as a tropical depression.

The area of disturbed weather in the Gulf is a different phenomenon. If it becomes a tropical cyclone, it would get a new name — next on the list is Nadine. That's because it is not the same circulation system that hit southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi last week, causing severe flooding and seven deaths.

The circulation of Isaac dissipated over the Ohio valley several days ago, Kimberlain said. What drifted back down south was only a small piece of the system.

"It's a remnant of Isaac, not THE remnant of Isaac," said Barry Keim, the state climatologist at LSU.

As of Thursday, the Isaac remnant was given a 40 percent chance of strengthening into a tropical cyclone. Dry air and upper-level winds were preventing it from getting stronger Thursday.

However, it was not yet clear how long those conditions would last, nor how an approaching cold front would affect the system. Furthermore, if the system does become a tropical depression, it is too soon to tell how strong it might become or exactly what path it might take.

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'Daughter of Isaac' could hit Gulf Coast

It could be stormy deja vu all over again for the Gulf Coast this weekend, as remnants of Hurricane Isaac meander in the Gulf of Mexico just off Pensacola, Fla.

This area of disturbed weather "could become a tropical depression as early as Thursday, though Friday is more likely," says Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. He adds that the storm would probably make landfall along the Florida Panhandle or west coast of Florida on Sunday.

If the disturbance reaches the 39-mph threshold to become a named storm, the "daughter of Isaac" would be called Nadine.

Regardless of whether it becomes a named storm, bad weather is likely along the Gulf Coast for the next several days.

"Very humid air, combined with the disturbance, will unleash downpours and the potential for flash flooding from part of the Louisiana coast to the Florida Panhandle," reports AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Elsewhere in the tropics, Hurricane Leslie became the sixth hurricane of the season far out in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, and could hit Bermuda over the weekend and eastern Canada next week, the National Hurricane Center reported. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Leslie had sustained winds of 75 mph, and was crawling to the north at 2 mph. The hurricane was 460 miles south southeast of Bermuda.

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