Sean Gardner / Reuters
St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain Jr., left, walks over Lock 2 of the Pearl River Navigational Canal in Bush, La., on Saturday. Officials opened a valve on the lock to relieve pressure on the overflowing Pearl River Navigational Canal.
By NBC News staff and news services
Updated at 12:01 p.m. ET: Engineers on Sunday were assessing the integrity of a lock along a canal north of New Orleans that threatened to fail and send water from the Hurricane Isaac-swollen Pearl River flooding through neighborhoods.
A flash-flood warning was in effect for east-central St. Tammany Parish, a community north of New Orleans in southeast Louisiana but officials said the threat of disaster had eased.
Parish President Pat Brister on Sunday changed the evacuation of the area between Bush and Hickory, east of Highway 41, ?from mandatory to voluntary. ?
"The Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District has lowered the pressure on Lock 2 near Bush.?The Corps informed President Brister this morning that the threat level is lowered significantly," St. Tammany Parish officials said in a statement on their website.
"As there is still a potential threat, even though reduced, a voluntary evacuation remains in place until the Army Corps of Engineers deems the Lock stable and safe."
Saturday night,?parish emergency officials said that the opening of valves had relieved pressure on Lock 2 on the Pearl River Diversion Canal but an evacuation order would remain in place.
The Gulf Coast is struggling to recover from Hurricane Isaac as nearly 400,000 homes and businesses are without power. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Water began pouring over the lock and leaching around its sides Saturday, prompting fears the entire structure could be washed away, sending a wall of water into nearby neighborhoods.?
Officials had said earlier Saturday that the failure of the lock appeared imminent. That promoted the mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents in some 1,200 homes.
Parish Sheriff Jack Strain Strain and?Brister late Saturday said the threat of the lock failing had been lessened after crews managed to open valves to release some of the water and reduce pressure on the structure.
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"The lock has been stabilized somewhat,? Strain said, according to nola.com.
Handout / Reuters
St.Tammany officials inspect Lock 2 on Saturday.
"The worst-case scenario -- we don't believe that's going to happen,'' he added.
The National Weather Service is projecting the Pearl River, at the town of Pearl River, to crest early Monday morning at 19.5 feet.?
As residents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas? began surveying the damage to their homes, remnants of Isaac pushed their way north, spinning off tornadoes in southeast Missouri and threatening flash-flooding in parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.
In Missouri's Bootheel region, Dunklin County sheriff's deputies tracked a tornado that destroyed a farm shop and damaged a home's roof, The Associated Press reported.
On Sunday morning nearly 265,000 customers in Louisiana, 13,000 in Mississippi and 7,300 in Arkansas remained without power, according to The Weather Channel.
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