Tropical Storm Isaac continued to dump rain over Louisiana and parts of Mississippi today, flooding the areas around New Orleans, but the city itself experienced only minor flood-related issues.
Isaac, which came ashore Tuesday night as a Category 1 hurricane, has proved to be a slow moving storm, and has lingered over southern Louisiana for more than a day now, producing as much as 25 inches of rain in some areas, says the National Weather Service.
Storm surge in some normally dry areas could produce flooding of up to eight feet along the Mississippi and Southern Louisiana coast, says the NWS.
Residents in Plaquemines Parish, just South of New Orleans had to be evacuated when water began to spill over the levees and flood the region.
Some reports say the Tangipahoa Dam in Mississippi could fail, potentially threatening thousands with the need to evacuate.
No new estimates on insured losses have been issued. The latest estimates yesterday were $500 million to $1.5 billion from Eqecat and $300 million to $7.5 billion from AIR Worldwide.
Noting the low figures from EQECAT, Meyer Shields, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus says that the losses would not "materially affect either insurers' [third quarter] 2012 earnings or property and casualty-catastrophe pricing trends."
He added that one positive of the storm could be that it might lead to less losses for the crop-insurance program, suggesting that the rain could save portions of the soybean harvest.
Isaac is expected to finally exit Louisiana today and head north into Arkansas and Missouri before turning east over the weekend.
While Isaac exits, another concern besides the water is the threat of tornadoes throughout the Mississippi Valley.
So far, there have been no reports of deaths from the storm. Close to 700,000 residents are without power.
The Atlantic Hurricane season continues through the most active months of August and September as the 11th and 12th named storms churn out in the middle of the ocean.
Hurricane Kirk and Tropical Storm Leslie are not forecast to make landfall.
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