LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In Plaquemines Parish, where waves topped an eight-foot levee, National Guardsmen along with residents were trying to rescue people trapped in homes. Reports say that up to 60 people appear to be trapped. Rescuers had earlier pulled several dozen people to safety.

"We have flooding, inundated four-to-nine feet in areas on that side" of the levee, parish emergency management official Guy Laigast says. "We've got homes that have been inundated. We have folks who are trapped in their residences.

"It's piling that water up on the east side of the Mississippi River," he added. "All that water is 'ponding' up in that area and that's what's causing the overtopping."

Only half of the 2,000 residents had reportedly evacuated ahead of Isaac's landfall Tuesday.

A number of homes had been flooded in Biloxi Bay, Mississippi.

"The entire stretch of U.S. 90 has been closed from the Bay St. Louis Bridge to the Biloxi Bay Bridge" due to flooding, Today Show's Al Roker reported. "And, by the way, high tide is coming up in a couple of hours."

Three adults and an infant stuck on a house boat in Hancock County, Mississippi and more than 450,000 homes and businesses were without power as a result of the storm.

"It's something I've never seen before," Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser told TV reporters. "I rode out Katrina, and my home has more damage now. It has not let up one time throughout this whole event. The driving rain, all the telephone poles down in Plaquemines Parish. This is not a Category 1 storm."

Flash flood warnings have been issued for the Orleans Parish, which includes New Orleans, Jefferson Parish, East Bank of Plaquemines Parish, Northwestern Plaquemines Parish, Western St. Bernard Parish and St. Charles Parish in Louisiana and Jackson County, Miss.

The worst part may not yet be over. According to Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, the storm is "not going to fall apart real quick.

"So much of the circulation is over water, and so close to or over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, there's really no reason why (Isaac) can't tap into the energy that warm water provides," he says.

"The large size means it's a bigger storm surge producer than a smaller Category 1," he noted. "It's slow motion means that the water is going to be piling up all day long and it's not going to go out today."

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