Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- New Orleans's 9th Ward filled with waist-deep water today, and the west side of the city flooded when higher-than-normal tides from Hurricane Rita poured over a levee that was patched following Katrina's devastation.

Water washed away gravel placed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reinforce the levee. The flooding diminished as winds shifted this afternoon.

The Army Corps discovered the 9th Ward breach around 10 a.m. local time, said Dan Hitchings, a corps spokesman. Two feet of water flowed over the levee into the 9th Ward, and a smaller amount spilled into the west side of the city, he said. As the storm moved toward the Texas coast, the wind shifted and the water dropped a foot and a half in an hour, Hitchings said.

``Water does not appear to be rising further,'' Hitchings said. The winds prevented the corps from fixing the levee by lowering sandbags by helicopter or carting in fill by truck, he said.

Rita is causing tides that are two feet above normal, bringing flooding to coastal Louisiana, including New Orleans, National Hurricane Center meteorologist Michelle Mainelli said.

Storm Surge

The Army Corps of Engineers was expecting a storm surge of 2 feet to 5 feet (1.5 meters) tomorrow morning, based on weather reports, Colonel Richard Wagenaar told reporters on a conference call. Instead, a surge came early today and measured 7.8 feet above sea level at one point, causing water to overflow into the lower 9th Ward.

As much as a foot of the reinforcement to that levee may be gone now, Wagenaar said.

``There was a section that was overtopped originally,'' he said. ``It probably started as a very small section. Over a period of a couple of hours, it just continued to grow.''

He said that there were reports of three smaller sections where the water topped the levees, but the main problems are the lower 9th ward and the west side, which is already being worked on, Wagenaar said.

``Right now we're focused on the west side,'' Wagenaar said. It's harder to get to the east side, where the water is flowing into the 9th Ward amid winds of 40 to 50 mph, he said. ``It's a little bit difficult to even navigate.''

There have been reports of significant new flooding in the parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines, which were among the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, Wagenaar told reporters on a conference call. One levee protecting that area was pretty much destroyed by Katrina, Wagenaar said, though the Army Corps can't validate the reports of new flooding.

Shelters Filled

Flooding closed several highways in southern Louisiana, said Colonel Henry Whitehorn, a spokesman for the Louisiana State Police. Louisiana State University and Southern University are closing this afternoon.

Louisiana shelters are filled, and about 2,000 evacuees are looking for spaces, said Colonel Jeff Smith, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness. State officials are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare planes and buses to transport those made homeless by the storm to other states, including Arkansas, which has offered 5,000 shelter slots, he said.

Smith said the evacuees who can't find a place in the shelters include some Texans who are fleeing the storm. The edge of the storm could spawn tornadoes throughout southwestern Louisiana, he said.

State officials expect ``not quite the devastation we saw with Katrina'' in most areas of the state, Smith said. The exception will be Cameron parish, a mostly rural region in the southwestern edge of the state, which lies in the storm's path, he said.

Troops Prepared

General John Basilica, commander of the Louisiana National Guard, said he's placing 4,000 engineering and infantry troops in Lafayette, Louisiana, in preparation for Rita. In New Orleans, 4,500 soldiers remain to manage the cleanup from Katrina. About 15,000 troops are in Louisiana, he said.

Basilica said he didn't know the status of Governor Kathleen Blanco's request for an additional 30,000 troops. Basilica, who just returned from Iraq this week to help with the storm, said the number of forces wouldn't hinder his efforts.

``We have enough troops,'' he said.

The Army Corps this week had reinforced ruptured sections of the levees with sheet metal in anticipation of Rita.

Hurricane Katrina earlier this month overwhelmed the city's system of levees and pumps, leading to breaches that flooded 80 percent of the city.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Baton Rouge at jbliss@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 23, 2005 17:12 EDT