(FOX NEWS)Â Hurricane Isaac pushed water over a rural Louisiana levee, knocking out power to nearly 500,000 customers across the state as it began a drenching slog inland from the Gulf of Mexico with New Orleans in its path.
Wind gusts and sheets of rain pelted the barren streets of New Orleans, where people watched the incoming Isaac from behind levees that were strengthened after the much stronger Hurricane Katrina hit seven years ago to the day. Power has been knocked out to 482,000 customers across southern Louisiana, about 157,000 of them in New Orleans, utility Entergy said.
Water driven by the large, powerful storm flooded over an 18-mile stretch of one levee in Plaquemines Parish south of New Orleans, flooding some homes in a thinly-populated area. The levee, one of many across the low-lying coastal zone, is not part of New Orleans’ defenses.
