Hundreds now feared dead

From correspondents in Biloxi, Mississippi
August 31, 2005

FLOODING in New Orleans, most of which is already under water following Hurricane Katrina, is expected to worsen in some areas after an effort to plug a breach in a levee failed.

With the death toll in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi rising towards the hundreds, flooding in New Orleans is now expected to rise again and residents have been advised to evacuate neighbourhoods where water could rise to an expected height of as high as 5m.

WWL-TV said an attempt to plug a levee break at the 17th Street Canal with sandbags had ended unsuccessfully and pumps in the area were overwhelmed.


Widespread looting is taking place and there are reports of inmates rioting and taking hostages at a city prison.

Mayor Ray Nagin said 80 per cent of the city was flooded and water levels began to rise around the city, a day after Hurricane Katrina struck, because of breaches in two levees.

Louisiana state Governor Kathleen Blanco said on CNN the US Army Corps of Engineers was working on trying to repair the levees but it was a difficult situation.

"We have canals that usually pull water out of the city and two of those canals have breaches. Water is pouring into those canals," she said. "The Corps of Engineers is trying to figure out that situation."

New Orleans, most of which is below sea level, is surrounded on three sides by bodies of water, with Lake Pontchartrain in the north, Lake Borgne in the east and the Mississippi River in the south.

Most of the flooding has been caused by a 60m breach in the 17th Street Canal levee holding back Lake Pontchartrain, according to officials.

Among the efforts being studied by US military engineers to plug the hole are dropping 1350kg sandbags from helicopters or shipping containers filled with sand.

The economic cost of the hurricane's rampage could be the highest in US history, according to damage estimates.


In the Mississippi coastal city of Biloxi, hundreds may have been killed after being trapped in their homes when a 9m storm surge came ashore, a city spokesman said. Cadaver dogs were being brought in to help find the dead.

"It's going to be in the hundreds," spokesman Vincent Creel said.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reported bodies floating in the city's floodwaters.

Rescuers struggled through high water and mountains of debris to reach areas devastated by Katrina when it struck the Gulf Coast region on Monday. The storm inflicted catastrophic damage all along the coast as it slammed into Louisiana with 224 km/h winds, then swept across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.

It shattered buildings, broke boats, smashed cars, toppled trees and submerged whole neighbourhoods. Risk analysts estimated the storm would cost insurers $US26 billion ($34.6 billion), making Katrina potentially the costliest natural disaster.

Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by the storm surge, which swept as far as 1.5 km inland in parts of Mississippi.

Hundreds of people climbed onto rooftops to escape the rising water that lapped at the eaves. They used axes, and in at least one case a shotgun, to blast holes in roofs so they could escape through the attics.

Police took boats into flood-stricken areas to rescue some of the stranded and others were plucked off rooftops by helicopter. The Coast Guard has helped rescue 1200 in New Orleans night and thousands more all along the Gulf Coast.

"We've been pulling them off sometimes four at a time, sometimes as many as 12," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Larry Chambers. "People are being taken to the nearest dry spot then the helicopter's going back and picking up more people."

In New Orleans, "We probably have 80 per cent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 6m," Mr Nagin said. "Both airports are under water."

The US military planned to use helicopters to drop giant sandbags filled with gravel into the breach in an attempt to fill it.

"This is a horror story. I'd rather be reading it somewhere else than living it," said Aaron Broussard, president of New Orleans' Jefferson Parish.

In Biloxi, the storm surge destroyed some of the casinos that lined the shore and ripped houses off their foundations. Dazed residents foraged for food and water and looting was widespread, the city spokesman said.

"It was like our tsunami," Mr Creel said.

Katrina knocked out electricity to about 2.3 million customers, or nearly 5 million people, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Restoring power could take weeks.

Link Here