Hurricane Issac struck Louisiana last evening and then again early this morning after temporarily moving back over open water.  Despite the levees and pumps holding up, there is wide-spread flooding.  A twelve-foot surge of water has inundated New Orleans, Jefferson and a number of other parishes along the Gulf, along with Jackson County Mississippi.  New Orleans as we learned during Katrina sits below sea level and therefore any catastrophic weather event such as a hurricane, will cause massive flooding.  People along the coast have the choice to either deal with the potential for losing everything on a yearly basis or move to higher ground.  That of course is not an option for everyone.  But clearly, no matter how beloved, that section of Gulf Coast is and will always be, a hazardous place to live.  The National Guard is in the process of rescuing people who are trapped in their homes despite mandatory evacuations.  It is estimated that as many as half the residents living in New Orleans stayed behind to ride out the storm.  This strategy once again proved to be ill-advised.  Residents along the Mississippi coast are also experiencing flooding with a storm surge being measured in feet.  Issac is not a particularly strong storm but its size, slow movement and unrelenting nature is what is causing the massive flooding.  As many as twenty inches of rain will have fallen in some parts by the time the storm moves north and exits the gulf coast later today.