Hurricane Isaac overtopping levee south of New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Authorities say a storm surge driven by Hurricane Isaac is overtopping a levee in a thinly populated part of mostly rural Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans.

Parish spokesman Caitlin Campbell says water is running over an 18-mile stretch of the levee and some homes are flooded.

Sheriff's deputies from St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes are going house-to-house looking for residents who'd remained after an evacuation order.

Campbell says streets in the area are still passable.

See how residents in the Gulf Coast prepared for Isaac in our photo gallery. If you're reading this on your phone, click on this link - http:// bit.ly/ NUi0sw .

Parish President Billy Nungesser says a portion of the roof of his home on the parish's west bank has blown off. He describes wind-driven rain coming into his home as "like standing in a light socket with a fire hose turned on."

Hurricane Isaac is beginning to move inland in southeast Louisiana and remains a category storm with top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Isaac's center is expected to pass over Louisiana today and tomorrow and on to Arkansas early today. It will weaken over the next two days as it passes over land.

Isaac came ashore Tuesday night near the mouth of the Mississippi River,, then went nearly stationary for several hours over the sparsely populated neck of land that stretches into the Gulf of Mexico. It was headed for New Orleans, 70 miles to the northwest, on the seventh anniversary of Katrina.

Track the storm with our interactive map at www.kjrh.com/isaac or on our Interactive Weather Center app for iPhone ( http://bit.ly/oVm3py ) or iPad ( http://bit.ly/qEU8cz ) or Storm Shield app ( http://bit.ly/kjrhstormshield