Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Army Corps of Engineers: New Orleans levee system holding up so far as Isaac slams Louisiana - @AP

NEW ORLEANS —

Officials say New Orleans' flood protections system is holding up so far as Hurricane Isaac storms through the area.

Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Rachel Rodi says the corps expects to be on "high alert" for the next 12 to 24 hours, but they're confident it's going well so far.

Rodi says a pumping station at the 17th Street canal in New Orleans - which was built at the site of a levee that breached during Hurricane Katrina - briefly went down early Wednesday, but operators were able to manually get it working again.

Isaac promises to test a New Orleans levee system bolstered by $14 billion in federal repairs and improvements after the catastrophic failures during right after Katrina hit in 2005.