Isaac downgraded to tropical storm

The National Hurricane Centre on Wednesday downgraded Isaac to a tropical storm, but the large weather system was still drenching south-eastern Louisiana and other parts of the US Gulf Coast. The eye of the storm at 1800 GMT was located about 80 kilometres west-south-west of New Orleans. It had maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometres per hour and was moving at about 9 kilometres per hour, dpa reported. The slow speed of the storm, which came ashore as a category 1 hurricane, made flooding even worse as it spun over coastal low lands. The levee system in New Orleans was holding, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, however, people whose homes are just outside the system were experiencing severe flooding.