New Orleans is flooded in some neighborhoods and a storm surge is coming.

Wednesday morning, there was a lot of water on the streets of New Orleans, because of the severe storms that prompted the National Weather Service to issue a "Flash Flood Emergency" warning. Some parts of the city received near a foot of rain before noon, turning neighborhoods that rarely flood the roads with canoes.

These scenes offer a glimpse of what will happen later in the week, when a tropical depression will turn into Hurricane Barry and reach the lands of the Louisiana Coast in Category 1, dropping to two feet of rain. in some parts of the island. l & # 39; state.

New Orleans has long had a problem of rain floods, as much of the city is located just above sea level, and much of it lies beneath it. Huge pumps accounted for a significant portion of the US $ 14.6 billion in storm protection that followed the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, and their difficulties are being scrutinized throughout the city. whenever it rains. Topographically, New Orleans is often compared to a bowl, but it is more of a waffle, with low soil pockets that fill a few inches of rain.

A rain forecast like Barry's is never welcome in New Orleans. But what makes this storm particularly worrying is that it comes at a time when the Mississippi River in New Orleans is just below the flood stage, an unusual and unprecedented development at the end of the war. 'year. As I wrote in June, the river, swollen by a record rainfall year in the Midwest, has never been so high and long. A few meters of rain and a medium-sized storm surge should bring the river to a height it has not reached for more than 90 years, reaching the top of the dikes. Another foot would bring down the water from the river in the districts below. Katrina hit when the river ran at 3 feet; it is currently 16 feet away.

The levees end around 20 feet; A storm surge on the Mississippi is projected at 20 feet. If the forecast is maintained, at least some water will cover the dikes along the banks of the river.