Hurricane Isaac (2012)

After crossing Haiti and eastern Cuba, Isaac made landfall at Southwest Pass, at the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, around 7 p.m. CDT on August 28, 2012, as a Category 1 hurricane with 70-knot (81 mph) winds.¹ Its center wobbled back over water and made a second landfall just west of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, around 3 a.m. CDT on August 29 at the same strength.¹

The highest surge at a National Ocean Service tide gauge was 11.03 feet at Shell Beach on Lake Borgne, with 8.00 feet at Bay Waveland Yacht Club in Mississippi and 6.35 feet at New Canal Station in New Orleans.¹ Water topped a non-federal levee on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish and flooded the area from Braithwaite south to Bel Air, and parts of the parish were under as much as 10 to 17 feet of water.¹ Outside the federal levees, water reached 8 to 12 feet deep in St. Bernard Parish, and surge from Lake Pontchartrain flooded parts of Slidell, Lacombe, Mandeville, Madisonville and LaPlace.¹ In Hancock and Harrison counties, Mississippi, water stood 5 to 9 feet above ground and surge reached inland north of Interstate 10.¹ The highest gust on land was 84 knots (97 mph) at a WeatherBug station in Poydras, St. Bernard Parish.¹

More than 10 inches of rain fell across most of southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and extreme southwestern Alabama, with 22.20 inches at Pascagoula and 20.66 inches in New Orleans.¹ In Palm Beach County, Florida, up to 15.86 inches of rain and overtopped canals isolated entire neighborhoods in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee and The Acreage under several feet of water.¹ NHC counts 5 direct deaths in the United States and estimates total US damage at about $2.35 billion.¹