Isaac kills seven, cities still underwater after storm hits US (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

The degree of damage handed out by Isaac has thankfully been but a sliver of what Katrina caused seven years earlier, but the latest storm has managed to be impressively ravaging still. Isaac has so far taken at least seven lives.

Now with the worst of the storm behind the state of Louisiana, residents are returning to their homes — or what’s left — and taking inventory of the destruction caused by the Isaac and assessing the devastation.

The number of fatalities caused by Isaac between Louisiana and Mississippi has risen to seven. Victims include a man killed in a restaurant fire, two killed in traffic accidents, a woman whose car got smashed by a falling tree, and a man who fell from a tree, AP reported. A man and woman from Braithwaite, south of New Orleans, were also found dead after being unable to leave their home during immense flooding. Dozens of residents had to be rescued as heavy rains soaked the surrounding area, putting many towns under water.

(AFP Photo / Chris Graythen)

"It comes to a point when the lake and your yard become one," Mandeville, Louisiana resident Gerard Braud tells CNN.

Along the nearby Tangipahoa River, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered a mandatory evacuation, citing that a break in a dam there could send floodwaters to the town of Kentwood in only 90 minutes, where 2,200 residents would be at risk of suffering Isaac’s wrath.

Strangely, some in other areas of the US are welcoming Isaac; in the draught-ravaged Midwest, the agriculture industry may finally receive a much needed boost, but at a price that has already cost insurmountable amounts of damage to the Gulf Coast. In their own report on Isaac, Reuters called the tropical storm, “a godsend to farmers suffering from the worst drought in more than 50 years, even if too late for many of this season's crops.”

Jewel Rico and her dog Chico are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Isaac on August 30, 2012 in Reserve, Louisiana (Reuters / Chris Graythen)

As the storm stretches north and west off the water, though, so does its wrath. CNN reports that at one point, 915,000 customers lost electricity between the states of Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, utility companies reported.

"It's not too bad, but the whole coast is going to be a mess," Pass Christian, Mississippi Mayor Chipper McDermott says to CBS News of the storm.