Storm's floods wreak havoc; hundreds now feared dead

NEW ORLEANS -- The city that has prided itself on letting the good times roll found itself overwhelmed yesterday by hardships caused by Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of people were feared dead, and floods reportedly stranded hundreds of others.

As levees and pumps failed, surging waters flooded more than 80 percent of a city that has lived below sea level and has fought off the danger of a deluge from the Mississippi River. Local officials declared martial law yesterday to cope with the emergency.

"The situation is untenable," said Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco. ''It's just heartbreaking."

One Mississippi county said that its death toll was at least 100, and officials are ''very, very worried that this is going to go a lot higher," said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport.

Thirty of the victims were from a beachfront apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of water as Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast with winds that sometimes exceeded 140 miles per hour. And Louisiana officials said many were feared dead there, too.

Such a toll would make Katrina one of the most punishing storms to hit the United States in decades.

After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi's governor, Haley Barbour, said it might have looked like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped.

The mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin, said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs and in attics, so rescue boats were bypassing the dead.

''We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. ''They're just pushing them on the side."

Food and drinkable water were scarce, forcing city officials to order nonessential people to evacuate. By afternoon, officials ordered rescue shelters evacuated.

The fabric of civil order was frayed. The Superdome was a grim experience for thousands.

Three hospital patients died in the dome, and another death was reported by officials. One suicide was reported, but could not be independently corroborated.

A massive pool of water, so contaminated with gasoline and chemicals that it looked blood-red under the blazing sun, seeped into the city and swept across the central business district.

Water spilled from several breaches in the city's levees, including the one next to the 17th Street Canal, at the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. Nagin estimated that the breach was two or three city blocks wide.

Officials' immediate concern was blocking the breach with sandbags. After that, the focus was to be on the failed pumps that move water out of the city. Even when they are functional, Nagin said, they can reduce the water level in the city by only an inch or an inch and a half per hour.

''We're talking about a long time before the water subsides," Nagin said. Meanwhile, the waters continued to rise.

''The water is coming from the river. The water is coming from the lake. The water is coming from the canals. And it's meeting up right here. It's getting higher and higher, and nobody knows when it's going to stop," said Paul Williams, 43, who was wading through the city's Seventh Ward in an attempt to reunite with his parents and 2-year-old son, who were trapped there.

''There's hope here," Williams said. ''But not much."

Early yesterday, a wave of storm-related water rushed through the levees, canals, and pumps. Two levees broke, allowing the waters to invade.

''We probably have 80 percent of our city underwater; with some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Nagin said.

Thousands of refugees abandoned their houses and waded to high ground yesterday, often through chest-high water.

On Loyola Avenue, family after family spilled out of working-class neighborhoods and housing projects in East New Orleans.

''We need help, man," said Chris Bordere, 32. Bordere was trying to escape the water with four children and other relatives in tow.

Part of the exodus from eastern pockets of the city began when a rumor circulated that engineers were going to be forced to destroy a levee to relieve water pressure.

That rumor did not appear to be true, although officials said they were considering whether to cut into some levees.

If it happened, it would send another wave of water coursing through the Ninth Ward, where Robert Esco, 41, fled with his family. It took him, his wife, and two children three hours to walk from their home to the central business district. Esco was trying to make it to a hospital, where he assumed his family would be allowed to sleep on the floor.

''I didn't think it would be like this," Esco said. ''I never thought I'd see this in all my days."

Nagin declared martial law in the afternoon and ordered everyone still in the city, including police officers not considered ''central emergency personnel," to leave New Orleans.

But almost all the evacuation routes out of the city had been blocked by flooding and debris from the storm.

The twin spans of Interstate 10, the main artery in and out of town to the east, were washed out in parts and seriously damaged, officials said. Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Development, estimated that about 40 percent of the bridge was washed out.

It could be weeks before the interstate reopens. To the west, the interstate was impassable where it crosses Lake Pontchartrain, because of high water. The causeway over the lake was inaccessible.

That left a tortuous route over the Mississippi River and through side streets as the only way in or out of the city, but even that route could be closed, authorities said.

Those who tried to escape by car did not get far. Dozens of vehicles were strewn about, abandoned in rising water.

As the water neared the heart of the French Quarter, some hotels began evacuating.

Kathy Quinlan, 47, walked forlornly away from the French Quarter, dragging a soggy suitcase. Quinlan and her husband had come to New Orleans from their home in Jacksonville, Fla., to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and had been trapped by the storm. Yesterday afternoon, the Holiday Inn Express in the French Quarter told them they had to go.

Houses that were not damaged by wind began to collapse as the standing water eroded their structures, particularly along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Nagin said electricity would be off in the bulk of New Orleans for at least a month. There was no estimate of when the city's drinking water might be potable. A major water main was shattered.

It was unclear how many people remained stranded in attics and on roofs, Boeringer said.

Thousands remained unaccounted for last night. ''There are still bodies floating," Nagin said.