By: KLKN Newsroom
8@klkntv.com
BRAITHWAITE, La. (AP) Isaac has weakened to a tropical depression after drenching southeast Louisiana and causing flooding. Isaac's maximum sustained winds decreased to near 35 mph Thursday and was expected to gradually weaken.
Thursday afternoon, Isaac's center was about 35 miles west-northwest of Monroe, La., and is moving north-northwest near 12 mph. Isaac made landfall Tuesday evening in southeast Louisiana as a Category 1 hurricane. Since then, the storm has caused flooding in areas across and Louisiana and Mississippi.
Crews are breaching a levee stressed by Isaac's floodwaters in southeast Louisiana's hard-hit Plaquemines Parish. At the same time, water at a dam farther north in Mississippi was released in an effort to prevent flooding there.
Officials hope the Thursday breach in Plaquemines Parish will relieve pressure on the levee. The sparsely populated area south of New Orleans is outside the federal levee system and has been plagued by flooding since Isaac sloshed ashore as a hurricane Tuesday evening and pushed water over an 18-mile levee. There have been evacuations and nearly 150 had to be rescued from flooding.
