After ignoring a mandatory call to evacuate, hundreds of Lafitte residents were plucked from their homes by boat and helicopter Saturday after Hurricane Rita's winds pushed the waters of Bayou Barataria into the low-lying community.
"We misjudged it,'' said Paul Bailey, who fled his home with cousin George Bailey in a 16-foot flatboat.
"It's rising tremendously,'' George Bailey added.
Lafitte and the Harvey Canal, the so-called Achilles' heel of the West Bank, kept Jefferson Parish officials on edge throughout the day as crews rushed to the industrial corridor to plug three levee breaches. Nonetheless, an evacuation of neighborhoods surrounding the canal had not been ordered as of late Saturday afternoon.
The parish closed Peters Road while workers tried to contain the breaches with sandbags, and later Saturday the Army Corps of Engineers opened the canal's locks to allow water to flow into the Mississippi River.
Parish officials will continue to monitor the canals as long as Rita's gusts continue. Walter Maestri, the parish's director of emergency preparedness, said the winds likely will remain a threat through late today. [Read more - NOLA]
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