Isaac hits gulf states

NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Isaac is forecast to keep lashing Louisiana with heavy rains Wednesday and Thursday as it hovers over the region, unleashing damaging 80-mph winds and causing widespread flooding in New Orleans and other coastal cities. A swollen Mississippi River spilled over the top of a levee in at least one coastal community near New Orleans. Wind gusts of more than 80 mph extended 60 miles from the slow-slogging storm's center, with winds of nearly 40 mph extending up to 185 miles. The center of the storm, moving at 6 mph, was wobbling slowly inland at 6 mph over southeastern Louisiana. The storm landed at 3:15 a.m. ET just west of Port Fourchon, about 60 miles south-southwest of New Orleans, says the National Hurricane Center. Isaac, upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane midday Tuesday, first touched land in Plaquemines Parish, about 90 miles southeast of New Orleans on Tuesday evening before heading back over the Gulf of Mexico.