New Orleans (AP) — As Isaac stormed down a path that is eerily similar to Hurricane Katrina, it raised familiar fears and old anxieties in New Orleans, a city still recovering from a near-mortal blow seven years ago.
Though it is far less powerful than the storm that crippled New Orleans, at press time the system was forecasted to make landfall on the seventh anniversary of Katrina.
When Isaac comes ashore, it will find a different city than the one blasted by Katrina. This New Orleans has a bigger, better levee system and other improvements designed to endure all but the most destructive storms. Many neighborhoods have been rebuilt. Some, however, remain desolate and filled with empty, dilapidated homes.
The Army Corps of Engineers was given about $14 billion to improve flood defenses, and most of the work has been completed. Experts say the city can handle a storm comparable to a Category 3 hurricane. Isaac came ashore Tuesday night as a Category 1 storm, striking anywhere from west of New Orleans to the Florida Panhandle.
As she loaded supplies into her car to prepare for Isaac, Linda Grandison’s mind rewound to the nightmare of Katrina.
Back in 2005, she had to flee her family’s flooded home and waited on a bridge for more than three days before being rescued by helicopter.
This time, Grandison was not taking any chances. She is with her mother in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, which did not flood in Katrina. The house has a generator to keep the refrigerator running if power goes out, and she has enough charcoal to grill out for days.
“You can’t predict God’s work. This is nerve-wracking,” she said. “I hate leaving my house, worrying if it’s going to flood or get looted. But I’m not going to stay in the city again.”
Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he understood residents’ worries, but tried to reassure them that the city was prepared.
“I think everything will be OK,” he said.
But people in this city aren’t easily soothed because they’ve never forgotten the images of families stranded at the decrepit Louisiana Superdome, people begging for help at the convention center and President Bush’s back-slapping congratulatory remarks to then-FEMA Director Michael Brown.
Shawanda Harris lost everything she owned when her ground-floor apartment in low-lying eastern New Orleans was flooded during Katrina. She was on the phone with family and friends this week as she waited for updates on Isaac from the mayor. The neighborhood was packing up and leaving.
Harris planned to caravan out of the city with relatives and head inland to another family house outside New Orleans.
“People ain’t taking chances now,” she said, keeping an eye on a television that was swarmed with the radar images of Isaac looming over the Gulf of Mexico.
Harris said the preparations were bringing back a lot of unease and heartache reminiscent of 2005.
“It was scary. My whole family was separated. They couldn’t find me. The Red Cross had called and told my mom that they found me dead,” she recalled.
She noted that Isaac was coming – just as Katrina did – at the end of the month, when many people are low on money.
“They got rent to pay. They got bills. Payday isn’t until the end of the month, Friday,” she said. “Right now, half our family got money. Some of our family got nothing. That’s why we’re leaving together.”
Associated Press writers Cain Burdeau and Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report.
