New Orleans – In a grim opening salvo from Hurricane Rita, a steady rain began falling Thursday on New Orleans for the first time since Katrina laid waste to the city, and engineers rushed to shore up the broken levees for fear of another ruinous round of flooding.
The forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain in New Orleans in the coming days. That is dangerously close to the amount engineers said could send floodwaters pouring back into neighborhoods that have been dry for less than a week.
The storm took a sharper-than-expected turn to the right on Thursday, setting it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit. But that raised the risk that the hurricane could strike much closer to New Orleans.
The forecast brought renewed urgency to efforts to shore up levees with sandbags and bring in more portable pumps. The Army Corps of Engineers also installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city’s canals to protect against storm surges.
The lack of rain since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city nearly four weeks ago has been one of the few blessings for New Orleans.
