AUGUST 29: Julia Wilson sits and watches as rain from Hurricane Isaac falls over Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by John Moore, Getty Images.
NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers says improvements to the New Orleans-area levee system did not cause Hurricane Isaac's storm-surge flooding of areas in Louisiana that were not inundated during Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
The corps says in a study released Friday that surge flooding during Isaac was the result of the storm's landfall just west of the Mississippi River, rainfall amounts of 8 to 20 inches, a forward speed three to four times slower than Katrina and an extended period of easterly winds that pushed surge heights to record levels.
The Times-Picayune reports (http://bit.ly/S6cX4Q) that residents and elected leaders in several area parishes - including St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa - had pushed for the study after record flooding in some areas.
The Associated Press