New Orleans is hunkering down as Hurricane Isaac pummels the city with strong winds and drenching rain.
The hurricane is drenching the Louisiana city exactly seven years after the devastating Hurricane Katrina, but is much less powerful.
The city has closed its new floodgates in a bid to protect it from the effects of high waters brought by sustained winds of up to 80mph (130km/h).
Sea water has already breached a levee in a town to the south of the city.
Caitlin Campbell, a spokeswoman for Plaquemines Parish – where Isaac first touched down – said water was running over an 18-mile (29-km) stretch of the levee and some homes were flooded.
After hitting Plaquemines Parish, the Category One hurricane headed back out to sea, before making a second landfall further west at Port Fourchon at about 02:00 (07:00 GMT) local time.
There are now reports of serious flooding and people stranded by rising waters in the Braithwaite area, just across the Mississippi river from metropolitan New Orleans. (BBC)
