Hundreds feared dead along US Gulf Coast, waters rising in Katrina’s wake

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – Rescue crews pushed bodies aside to get to stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina as hundreds were feared dead in a humanitarian crisis that officials warned would worsen yesterday as flood waters continued to rise.

“The devastation is greater than our worst fears,” said Louisiana state Governor Kathleen Blanco said. “It is just totally overwhelming.”Lake Pontchartrain was spilling slowly into the low-lying city of New Orleans after an effort to plug a breach in a levee failed yesterday and pumps gave out.Looting broke out in some areas and gas leaks fuelled fires.”Over the next 12 to 15 hours, water will rise on the east bank of New Orleans to the levels where some sections of the city which are dry now could see more than three metres of water,” Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN television late on Tuesday.”We have probably 80 percent of our city under water,” the mayor said.”The big challenge we have right now is to get the water out of the city.Until we can stabilise the levee system we can’t say when that’ll happen.”Residents were advised to evacuate the Orleans and Jefferson neighbourhoods on the east bank where water levels could rise significantly.Rescuers in boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of survivors stranded on rooftops, their efforts hampered by live power lines, broken gas pipes and debris including cars floating below the surface of the rising waters.Nagin said he did not have a casualty toll from Hurricane Katrina but “there are dead bodies floating in the water…The rescuers were basically pushing them aside as they rescued people.”Governor Blanco said hundreds of people had been brought to dry ground, but warned to expect a grim toll: “We know that many lives have been lost.”The magnitude of the storm’s destructive power was felt in equal measure along the shoreline of neighbouring Mississippi, where glitzy casinos, plush homes and shrimp fishing businesses lay in ruins, after a storm surge up to 10 metres high crashed ashore on Monday.”This is our tsunami,” said AJ Holloway, mayor of the devastated resort city of Biloxi, where a tidal surge swept away bridges, sent boats crashing into buildings and flooded entire neighbourhoods.”You’re going to be looking at hundreds dead along the coast of Mississippi,” Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel said.Authorities said at least 50 people were known to have been killed in Biloxi alone, around 30 of them in a single apartment complex demolished by the storm.A million people were without power across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, water supplies were compromised and collapsed communications left large areas cut off from the outside world.Damage estimates soared into the billions of dollars.- Nampa-AFP”It is just totally overwhelming.”Lake Pontchartrain was spilling slowly into the low-lying city of New Orleans after an effort to plug a breach in a levee failed yesterday and pumps gave out.Looting broke out in some areas and gas leaks fuelled fires.”Over the next 12 to 15 hours, water will rise on the east bank of New Orleans to the levels where some sections of the city which are dry now could see more than three metres of water,” Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN television late on Tuesday.”We have probably 80 percent of our city under water,” the mayor said.”The big challenge we have right now is to get the water out of the city.Until we can stabilise the levee system we can’t say when that’ll happen.”Residents were advised to evacuate the Orleans and Jefferson neighbourhoods on the east bank where water levels could rise significantly.Rescuers in boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of survivors stranded on rooftops, their efforts hampered by live power lines, broken gas pipes and debris including cars floating below the surface of the rising waters.Nagin said he did not have a casualty toll from Hurricane Katrina but “there are dead bodies floating in the water…The rescuers were basically pushing them aside as they rescued people.”Governor Blanco said hundreds of people had been brought to dry ground, but warned to expect a grim toll: “We know that many lives have been lost.”The magnitude of the storm’s destructive power was felt in equal measure along the shoreline of neighbouring Mississippi, where glitzy casinos, plush homes and shrimp fishing businesses lay in ruins, after a storm surge up to 10 metres high crashed ashore on Monday.”This is our tsunami,” said AJ Holloway, mayor of the devastated resort city of Biloxi, where a tidal surge swept away bridges, sent boats crashing into buildings and flooded entire neighbourhoods.”You’re going to be looking at hundreds dead along the coast of Mississippi,” Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel said.Authorities said at least 50 people were known to have been killed in Biloxi alone, around 30 of them in a single apartment complex demolished by the storm.A million people were without power across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, water supplies were compromised and collapsed communications left large areas cut off from the outside world.Damage estimates soared into the billions of dollars.- Nampa-AFP