Volunteers help evacuees in 'catastrophic' Hurricane Ida aftermath

Catera Whitson (C) and Kyler Melancon (R) ride in the back of a high water truck as they volunteer to help evacuate people from homes after neighborhoods flooded in LaPlace, Louisiana on Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Rescuers on Monday combed through the "catastrophic" damage Hurricane Ida did to Louisiana, a day after the fierce storm killed at least two people, stranded others in rising floodwaters, and sheared the roofs off homes. 

Agence France-Presse

Hurricane Delta bears down on storm-weary US Gulf Coast

BATON ROUGE, La. - Residents in parts of the US state of Louisiana jammed highways as Hurricane Delta spun across the Gulf of Mexico toward a region struggling to recover from the damage inflicted by a hurricane less than two months ago.

Delta on Friday morning was a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, packing winds of 120 miles per hour (325 km) and expected to bring winds, rain and a "life threatening" storm surge, National Hurricane Center forecasters said.

Residents and businesses boarded windows and several southwest parishes closed schools, government offices and called for residents to flee to safer ground.

"I know people in Louisiana, especially the southwest, are very strong and very resilient, but they are going to be tested here," Governor John Bel Edwards said at a Thursday news conference.

Forecast models show Delta weakening slightly but remaining at or near a category 3 hurricane at landfall between the cities of Lake Charles and Lafayette, driving a 4- to 11-foot (1.2-3.3 meters) storm surge up Vermilion Bay on the coast. It could also unleash tornadoes as it moves over land and drop up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain.

The same region was hard hit by Hurricane Laura in August, leaving more than 6,000 people still living temporarily in hotel rooms and others with damaged homes.

Another storm, Hurricane Sally, brought torrential rains and flash flooding to Alabama and Georgia in September.

"They never had time to recover from Laura and now this next storm is hitting them. They never had time to get back on their feet and they didn't think they could survive the second one," Cathy Evans, 63, said of her daughter's family as she helped them move out of their Lake Charles home.

Evans, who traveled to Lake Charles from Texarkana, Arkansas, left with her daughter and family for Texas on Thursday evening as Louisiana was closing its flood control gates.

New Orleans may be spared the worst of the storm, although it will be hit by gusty winds and mild rain, said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan Kottlowski, with Lafayette the largest city on the storm's eastern and more dangerous side.

The state received a federal emergency declaration and Wal-Mart said it was closing many of its stores across the Gulf Coast as a precaution.

Energy companies halted 92%, or nearly 1.7 million barrels per day of offshore oil output, and 62% of natural gas production, data showed. The U.S. Coast Guard warned shippers of impending gale force winds from Port Arthur, Texas, to New Orleans.

When Delta reaches the northern Gulf Coast, it will be the 10th named storm to make a U.S. landfall this year, eclipsing a record that has stood since 1916. 

-reuters-

Storm Barry now a hurricane ahead of landfall in US

Barry strengthened into a category 1 hurricane on Saturday as it neared the Louisiana coast, US meteorologists said -- prompting millions of residents of the southern US state to hunker down for expected major flooding.

At 10:00 am (1500 GMT), the storm was packing sustained winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour -- just above the minimum to qualify as a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest storm advisory.

The eye of the storm was located about 50 miles from Morgan City, to the west of the state's biggest city New Orleans, and moving at a slow pace of six miles an hour -- meaning that landfall could still be hours away.

But the outside edge of the storm was already punishing the US Gulf Coast with heavy rains. Authorities ramped up evacuations, airlines canceled flights and flood gates were slammed shut.

In Morgan City, the streets were deserted. The Atchafalaya River had flooded its banks, and trees were already blown over in residential areas.

"It's painstakingly slow," government meteorologist Ben Schott told CNN, noting that residents should not be lulled into complacency about facing the storm.

"If you don't have to go anywhere, stay home. Monitor what's going on. Do not put yourself at risk."

With Barry dumping rain across several southern states, federal emergency declarations were issued to help free up resources to address the storm.

Governor John Bel Edwards said New Orleans was well prepared to withstand the storm, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, but urged vigilance by residents across the state, tens of thousands of whom had lost power.

"No one should take this storm lightly," Edwards said on Twitter.

NHC Director Ken Graham warned of the potential for inland flooding: "It's not just a coastal event."

- Watching the Mississippi -

For many, the large storm swirling in the Gulf of Mexico and the potential for large-scale flooding in coastal and river areas has brought with it unpleasant memories of 2005's deadly Hurricane Katrina.

Thousands have packed up and left their homes as floodwaters hit low-lying areas like Plaquemines Parish, where road closures left some communities isolated.

Some nevertheless hunkered down to ride out the storm, despite mandatory evacuation orders.

"We've stayed for some pretty strong storms and we shouldn't have," admitted Keith Delahoussaye, a 60-year-old mechanic, at his trailer home in Port Sulphur.

He was keeping a close eye on the nearby Mississippi River.

"If we see the water rising here, we'll leave," he said.

In New Orleans, residents and business owners were laying down sandbags and boarding up windows while city officials set up shelters for residents.

But local revelers and tourists drank "hurricane" cocktails and sang arm in arm as they walked down Bourbon Street late Friday.

On Saturday, Mayor LaToya Cantrell again urged caution, saying: "A lot of the rain won't happen until after landfall."

- Dangerous conditions -

Louisiana is facing an extraordinarily dangerous confluence of conditions, experts say.

The level of the Mississippi River, already swollen from historic rains and flooding upstream, was at nearly 17 feet (5.2 meters) in New Orleans -- just below flood stage.

River levels are expected to peak at just over 17 feet, according to Saturday's forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

US Senator Bill Cassidy said officials with the Army Corps of Engineers told him they were "confident" that the 20-foot-high levee system protecting New Orleans, a city of 400,000, would hold.

"There's still going to be two to three feet between the top of the levee and the top of the floodwaters," Cassidy told Fox News.

Storm surges of up to six feet are projected, and 10 to 20 inches of rain are forecast.

Mike Yenni, president of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, said the community had taken the "unprecedented" step of closing hundreds of flood gates, largely due to the high levels of the Mississippi.

Authorities closed highways in several locations along the coast as floodwaters began creeping in.

In St. John's Parish next to New Orleans, some communities were already under two or more feet of water, local television footage showed.

In 2005, Katrina -- the costliest and deadliest hurricane in recent US history -- submerged about 80 percent of New Orleans, causing some 1,800 deaths and more than $150 billion in damage.

The city's main sports arena, the Superdome, was turned into an emergency shelter during Katrina.

The facility was due to host a concert by the Rolling Stones on Sunday, but it was postponed by a day due to Barry.

"We're here with you -- we'll get through this together," the band said in a statement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Flood hits New Orleans ahead of storm

Terrian Jones reacts as she feels something moving in the water at her feet as she carries Drew and Chance Furlough to their mother on Belfast Street in New Orleans during flooding from a storm in the Gulf of Mexico that dumped heavy rains Wednesday. Tropical Storm Barry is expected to form in the Gulf of Mexico and strengthen to a hurricane by Saturday according to the US National Hurricane Center.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Golf: Rahm and Palmer team up to win US PGA Zurich Classic

NEW ORLEANS -- Spain's Jon Rahm and American Ryan Palmer partnered for a three-under par 69 Sunday to win the US PGA Zurich Classic pairs event by three strokes.

Palmer and Rahm finished 72 holes at the TPC of Louisiana course near New Orleans on 26-under par 262 in the unique tournament with four-ball (best ball) first and third rounds and foursomes (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds.

Spain's Sergio Garcia and England's Tommy Fleetwood were second on 265 with South Korean Lee Kyoung-hoon and American Matt Every sharing third on 267 with Slovakian Rory Sabbatini and American Brian Gay.

Palmer, 42, captured his fourth US PGA title but his first since the 2010 Sony Open in Hawaii. He had lost three tour playoffs since then, including last year at Torrey Pines to Australia's Jason Day.

"Nine years since I last won," said a tearful Palmer said. "Really special."

Palmer's other wins came at defunct events, the 2004 Disney World Classic and 2008 Ginn sur Mer Classic.

Rahm, 24, took his third career US PGA title and first win of the year after crowns last year at Palm Springs, the European Tour's Spanish Open and the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.

"This is a very special one," Rahm said. "It's special for Ryan and I'm excited to share it with him. He earned it with all the putts he made. He played a lot of good golf."

Palmer blasted a second shot on the par-5 second hole to the fringe and tapped in for birdie after Rahm was just short on an eagle putt.

Rahm found rough off the sixth tee and Palmer couldn't reach the green in two as they made bogey but the duo stayed on top and opened the back nine with another birdie when Rahm sank a 13-foot putt.

"I'm going to take some pride in that," Rahm said. "I needed to do something."

They began to pull away with birdies at the par-4 13th, after Rahm dropped his approach three feet from the cup, and par-3 14th, on Palmer's 11-foot putt.

"My putting was there today," Palmer said. "I had some fabulous putts from four to eight feet and they were crucial. It was fun to play with a guy who can hit it as well as he does."

Three strokes ahead and with no rival on the course within five strokes, Rahm and Palmer parred to the finish to complete the victory.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hurricane Nate makes landfall at US Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Nate made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 1 storm with winds of 85 miles per hour on Saturday evening, threatening parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with torrential rain and potential flooding.

Nate, the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than 2 months, killed at least 30 people in Central America before entering the warm waters of the Gulf and bearing down on the US South.


As the hurricane struck at about 7 p.m. CDT (8 a.m. Sunday, Manila time), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded its warning for New Orleans to a tropical storm. But Nate was expected to regain some strength and make a second landfall along the coast of Mississippi to the east.

"While it appears we're being spared ... our hearts go out to Mississippi," said Amos Cormier, president of Plaquemines Parish, a low-lying area in the New Orleans area.

The hurricane's center was expected to pass over portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee late Saturday through Sunday night, eventually weakening to a tropical depression. Before then, storm surges of up to 11 feet on the Mississippi-Alabama border were still possible, the NHC said.

Earlier in the day, a state of emergency was declared in the 3 states, as well as in more than two dozen Florida counties.

Nate comes on the heels of three other major storms, Harvey, Irma and Maria, which devastated Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, respectively. But as a Category 1, the weakest in the 5-category ranking used by meteorologists, Nate appeared to lack the devastating punch of its predecessors.

Plaquemines Parish evacuated some 240 residents who were not protected by its levee system as the storm approached.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew in the city on Saturday evening that was originally scheduled to last until Sunday morning. He said in a statement on social media however, that there was still a serious threat of storm surge outside levee areas.

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI BRACE

In a statement, the City of Biloxi was warning its 46,000 residents that the highest storm surge would occur between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. and could reach 11 to 12 feet.

In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey urged residents in areas facing heavy winds and storm surges to take precautions.

East of the Mississippi River from the central Gulf Coast into the Deep South, eastern Tennessee Valley, and southern Appalachians, 3 to 6 inches and a maximum of 10 inches of rain was expected, the NHC said.

The Ohio Valley into the central Appalachians could see 2 to 5 inches with maximums of 7.

Major shipping ports across the central US Gulf Coast were closed to inbound and outbound traffic on Saturday, as Nate intensified and storm surges of up 11 feet (3.74 m) were expected at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The storm has curtailed 92 percent of daily oil production and 77 percent of daily natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico, more than three times the amount affected by Harve

Workers had been evacuated from 301 platforms and 13 rigs as of Saturday, said the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

Before heading north into the Gulf, Nate brushed Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, home to beach resorts such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the NHC said.

The storm doused Central America with heavy rains on Thursday, killing at least 16 people in Nicaragua, 10 in Costa Rica, two in Honduras and two in El Salvador.

Thousands were forced to evacuate their homes and Costa Rica's government declared a state of emergency.

(Additional reporting by Chris Kenning, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, Oswaldo Rivas in Managua, Erwin Seba and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Bill Rigby and Diane Craft)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Baton Rouge police officers shot, two reported dead

LOUISIANA, USA - Multiple police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were shot on Sunday morning, a department spokesman said, as the country remains on edge about police and community relations.

Two of the officers have died, Baton Rouge's chief administrative officer told the Advocate Newspaper.

The officers were taken to a local hospital, spokesman Sergeant Don Coppola said the local CBS affiliate, adding he did not know the extent of their injuries. Sheriff's deputies may have also been involved.

While the scene of the shooting was contained, police have still not taken the shooter into custody and warned local residents to stay away from the scene, near Airline Highway.

The reports come a week after a wave of protests against police violence in Baton Rouge and other cities after a 37-year-old father of five was shot and killed at close quarters by law enforcement officers. At one of the demonstrations in Dallas, a gunman opened fire on white officers assigned to the protest, killing five of them.

Telephone video footage carried on a local news station showed police cars arriving at a suburban intersection, and then five shots rang out.

A WFAB reporter at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, where the injured officers were taken, said the flag outside was at half staff.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Ian Simpson, Tim Gardne and Julia Edwards in Washington, editing by David Evans)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

New Orleans mourns dead, celebrates life on Katrina anniversary

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans remembered the dead and celebrated its painstaking comeback from disaster on Saturday, a decade after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the "Big Easy" leaving devastation and chaos in its wake.

City leaders placed wreaths at a memorial to Katrina's scores of unknown victims, marking the hour that the Category 5 storm struck with catastrophic force, overwhelming the Louisiana port's system of levees.

More than 1,800 people were killed across the US Gulf Coast when Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. A million people were displaced and the financial toll topped $150 billion.

New Orleans was plunged into a nightmarish scene of death and looting after Katrina barreled her way through and government help was painfully slow to come, something which still rankles in the city.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu, at a solemn ceremony attended by about 400 people at Charity Hospital Cemetery in the Mid-City neighborhood, struck a defiant tone.

"New Orleans will be unbowed and unbroken. We're still standing after 10 years," he declared.

"We have risen and we will rise again, but we can only do it if we hold each other up and we don't leave anybody behind."

The memorial to the unclaimed Katrina victims holds the remains of bodies which were never identified or claimed.

"We know that even as New Orleans is rebuilding, there are those who are grieving the deaths of their mothers, their fathers, their sisters. I want those families to know that our thoughts are with them," Governor Bobby Jindal said.

The wreath ceremony gave way to parades, marches and partying, capping a week of remembrance that included a visit from President Barack Obama.

Barbeque smoke and music filled the stifling New Orleans air, as brass bands and revelers celebrated the recovery of a city synonymous with Dixieland jazz and the raucous Mardi Gras.

Gwen Truhill, a local from the Ninth Ward, said: "We've come a long way, but yet still so far to go.

"It's good to see everybody come together and remember what happened, to see that people are still in good spirits. It's still kind of bittersweet."

Neighborhoods and cultural centers are holding parties and parades before former president Bill Clinton speaks at an evening commemoration, with performances by a number of Grammy-winning musicians.

- 'Sea of misery and ruin' -
Some 80 percent of New Orleans was swallowed up by floods which rose as high as 20 feet (six meters) after the low-lying coastal city's poorly built levee system burst from the pressure of a massive storm surge.

The water came up so fast that some people drowned in their homes. Hundreds more were stranded on their rooftops.

The few dry spots in the city descended into anarchy as tens of thousands of increasingly desperate people with little food or clean water waited for help to finally reach them.

"All of us who are old enough to remember will never forget the images of our fellow Americans amid a sea of misery and ruin," former president George W. Bush said in a visit to a New Orleans school Friday.

Bush, who faced intense criticism for his handling of the crisis, said he was moved by the city's determination to "rebuild better than before."

Ten years on, colorful homes on stilts have replaced many of the rotten hulks left behind by the stagnant and effluent-tainted flood waters.

Music and the smell of gumbo -- a spicy stew -- once again waft through the bustling streets of the French Quarter.

The tourism industry is booming once again, with nine million visitors last year and the city has managed to attract a growing number new businesses.

Crime -- while still high -- is improving, with the murder rate hitting a 43-year low in 2014 and the population in city jails down by two-thirds.

- Changing city -
Some of the city's 385,000 residents say its Creole and Afro-Caribbean identity has been altered indelibly by the storm.

A large portion of the population never came back and New Orleans now has 100,000 fewer people than it did before Katrina, and many are newcomers.

The black population has also fallen, from 68 percent of residents in 2000 to 60 percent in 2013, latest census figures show.

But plenty of white New Orleans residents also found the emotional and financial cost of rebuilding to be too high, though their numbers are harder to measure.

"A lot of things have changed, but sometimes change is for the better," city resident Elisianne Coco said.

"It's not the same New Orleans that it was when I was growing up, but as long as they get the best of it, that's all that matters."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Drifter' gunman kills two, himself in cinema rampage

LAFAYETTE, United States - The troubled "drifter" who randomly killed two women in a Louisiana movie theater and then took his own life has emerged as an anti-government extremist who owned a legally-purchased firearm.

The latest mass shooting to strike the United States took place on Thursday just hours after President Barack Obama said an inability to enact "common sense" gun controls was one of the greatest frustrations of his time in office.

Authorities said Houser purchased his gun legally at a pawn shop in the neighboring state of Alabama.

Police said John Houser initially tried to flee after shooting 13 rounds from a single handgun into a crowded cinema in Lafayette, Louisiana Thursday evening.

But he turned around and shot himself dead when he saw police officers rushing towards the sound of gunfire.

Nine people were wounded in addition to the two women killed.

The motive of Houser -- a 59-year-old white man with a criminal record -- remains unclear.

Investigators said they are looking into an online history which appears to include anti-government rants, conspiracy theories and Nazi-sympathizing views.

They are also examining his mental health history. His wife sought a restraining order against Houser in 2008 and reportedly had him involuntarily committed.

"We believe that talking to the family and talking to the friends and trying to look at his writings on the internet maybe we can figure out why he did it," Louisiana state police chief Michael Edmonson said.

"There's nothing to lead us to any indication that he had any accomplice or anybody is out there trying to do what he's doing."

- 'Random act of violence' -

Houser had been staying at a nearby motel where authorities found glasses and wigs apparently intended for disguises.

"He's kind of a drifter," police chief Jim Craft said, adding that Houser had arrived in Louisiana recently from Alabama.

It is possible that he may have been inspired by a 2012 theater massacre in Colorado that left 12 dead and 70 injured, Craft said.

Almost exactly three years ago, James Holmes opened fire on a packed screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado, in a meticulously-planned attack.

Jurors are currently considering whether Holmes, 27, should receive the death penalty.

More than 300 people were in the Louisiana multiplex when Houser began shooting some 20 rounds into an audience of about 25 people watching the comedy "Trainwreck."

Five people remained in the hospital Friday, one of whom is in critical condition. Police said one man was shot four times.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal praised the "selfless heroism" of two wounded teachers. The first threw herself in front of her friend to shield her from the bullets.

The second, who was shot in the leg "had the presence of mind to pull the fire alarm" to warn others of the danger.

Jindal, who is also vying for the Republican presidential nomination, said it was not the right time to discuss gun control and that the focus should remain on the victims.

- 'Disaffected, angry man' -

The shooting came just hours after Obama said the issue on which he felt "most frustrated and most stymied" was gun control.

"If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands," Obama said, in a BBC interview taped before the shooting.

"And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing," he said.

The White House said the president's "thoughts and prayers" were with the victims and their families.

This latest incident also comes a day after a federal grand jury indicted suspected white supremacist Dylann Roof on hate crime and other charges over the June 17 shooting massacre of nine black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Houser left dozens of messages on extremist websites "which provide a picture of a politically disaffected, angry man, who viewed the United States as a 'financially failing filth farm,'" according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

He also expressed anti-Semitic and homophobic views, and "a number of conspiracy theories often espoused by the anti-government right," the group said.

Police said Mayci Breaux, 21, died in the theater. Jillian Johnson, 33, died in hospital.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

3 killed, 7 injured in Louisiana theater shooting: police

WASHINGTON, United States - A gunman opened fire in a movie theater in the US state of Louisiana on Thursday, shooting dead two people before killing himself, police said.

Seven other people were shot by the gunman, police said, describing the shooter as a "white male in his 50s". Local police said in press conference the shooter appeared to have died from a self-inflicted wound.

The shooting took place at the Grand 16 theater in the city of Lafayette during a showing of the film "Trainwreck," local media reported.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Orlando Woolridge, 52, dies in Louisiana

Orlando Woolridge, who played at Notre Dame and went on to a long career in the NBA, was pronounced dead Thursday night at his parents' Mansfield, La., home, the Shreveport Times reported.

Woolridge, 52, had been under hospice care for a chronic heart condition, Desoto Parish chief deputy coroner Billy Locke told the newspaper.

A star at Mansfield High, south of Shreveport in western Louisiana, the 6-9 Woolridge was a member of Notre Dame's 1978 Final Four team.

He was drafted in the first round, sixth overall, of the 1981 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, with whom he played for five seasons.

He averaged more than 20 points per game for Chicago in 1984-85 and '85-86 before signing with the New Jersey Nets as a free agent in October 1986. He averaged 20.7 points in his first season in New Jersey, but played only 19 games in 1986-87 because he was suspended by the NBA for substance abuse.

Woolridge would go on to play for five other NBA teams before retiring after the 1993-94 season.

He averaged double figures in scoring his last three years at Notre Dame.

According to the Times, he was inducted in 2010 into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

However, according to the newpaper, Woodridge was arrested in February for theft of more than $1,500 for stealing aluminum water lines used to transfer water to natural gas drilling sites, DeSoto Parish deputies said. The material was valued at more than $2,000 and sold for scrap.

article source: aol.sportingnews.com