Louisiana Hit by Hurricane for Second Day

Hurricane Juan, after lingering offshore through the night, pummeled the Louisiana coast for a second day Tuesday, flooding lowland homes, threatening to devastate the state’s major cash crops and sinking a 52-foot barge with three crewmen still on board.

The hurricane’s first round of death and destruction began with torrential rains Monday morning, when the storm moved in quickly and bumped along the length of the state’s shoreline.

Then it stalled just off the western edge of the state, reversed its direction and took direct aim at the heavily populated New Orleans area.

Oil Rig Barge Capsizes

One of the victims of its 85-m.p.h. winds and massive seas early Tuesday was the A.M. Howard, an oil rig barge on its way back into port when it capsized, carrying three crewmen down with it.

The only person to escape the sinking, Coast Guard spokesman Keith Spangler said, was the barge master, who swam for safety until he was picked up by the motor vessel Vena E.

Divers from the Coast Guard and the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife tried throughout the day to cut holes in the barge and find the three men left on board, hoping they had survived in an air pocket.

‘Haven’t Heard Anything’

“Divers are still on the scene, and they are cutting holes inside of the living quarters,” Spangler said late Tuesday afternoon. “They haven’t heard anything. They’re just doing it on hope--that they might have reached an air pocket. And if they are dead, we’ve got to get the bodies out.”

The hurricane had already taken at least three lives on Monday, and Spangler said the Coast Guard is looking for six other persons reported missing. The storm had formed and raced for shore so rapidly on Sunday that hundreds were stranded, both on land and on oil rigs offshore. The Coast Guard said it rescued 162 people, far more than is usual even for stronger hurricanes.

Among those rescued Tuesday were the five crewmen of the 110-foot Gary Ellen, which was set adrift at the mouth of the Mississippi when its tow line broke. A Coast Guard helicopter found the five on the crew boat, which was partly submerged after it was run aground.

As the rescue efforts continued offshore, residents on land were faced with losing their homes to rising flood waters in the Louisiana lowlands. In the town of Houma, southwest of New Orleans, Civil Defense spokesman Don Gary said 14 inches of rain fell since Saturday and that the waters rose as much as 10 feet.

‘Worst I’ve Seen’

“We had a lot of people who left their homes, but we have a lot of people who have water in their homes who could lose everything,” he said. “I’m 55 and this is the worst I’ve seen as far as water goes. We’ve had hurricanes that blew off roofs and we’ve had some flooding, but nothing like we had this time.”

Gary said that cattle have drowned and that displaced snakes, including water moccasins, were becoming a problem. He also said the hurricane can only add to the economic ills of the area, which is almost completely dependent on the flagging oil industry.

“We’ve had it bad for the last couple of years,” he said.

One major fear in Louisiana was the fate of the sugar cane and soybean crops, which were both ripe for harvest when the hurricane struck.

Larry Michaud of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture said the crops were first affected when Hurricane Danny blew through the “gut” of the state earlier in the year.

Outlook ‘Dismal’

“Eighty to 85% of the sugar cane crop was still in the fields when Juan hit,” he said. “The outlook is pretty dismal.”

The cane crop, Louisiana’s second-biggest, is worth $110 million in the fields. The major cash crop is soybeans, and Michaud said that suffered as well.

‘Deep Under Water’

“The cane is flat throughout, and 50% of the soybeans are deep under water,” he said. “If we’re going to save much, that water would have to start draining off now, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”

There were scenes of devastation in towns and villages all along the Mississippi Delta.

Residents who stayed behind used boats to travel back and forth. And in Lafitte, a tiny community on the Delta, the flood waters floated coffins from mausoleums and boaters chased downstream to retrieve them.