Via the AP:
Water poured over a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods and heightening fears that Hurricane Rita would re-flood this devastated city. "Our worst fears came true. The levee will breach if we keep on the path we are on right now, which will fill the area that was flooded earlier," Barry Guidry with the Georgia National Guard.Awful. The article goes on to point out that the flooded area had only recently been pumped dry. All that effort, and now this happens.
Dozens of blocks in the Ninth Ward were under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide poured over a dike that had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal. On the street that runs parallel to the canal, the water ran waist-deep and was rising fast.
For the residents of the area and the relief workers who have worked so hard to get it dry, this must be utterly demoralizing. All everyone can do is watch and pray that the levee does not breach again.
On top of all that, Hurricane season doesn't end until December 1.
Update: In the updated version of the AP's coverage, we learn that LA Gov. Kathleen Blanco is suddenly a proponent of the Magic Marker Strategy for people who still refuse to evacuate:
As for those who refuse to leave, Gov. Kathleen Blanco advised: "Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink."Funny. Some people on the left freaked out when John Tierney's Magic Marker Strategy column first appeared on September 5. What will they say now that the governor of Louisiana, a Democrat, seems to be embracing the idea?
Update II: Paul at Wizbang hammers the MSM account, pointing out that that since water is already coming over the levees, the media descriptions of the levees being "intact" are nothing more than an exercise in semantics. For the people affected by this, flooding is flooding, no matter how it's presented by the media.
