Storm kills at least 55

NEW ORLEANS -- Hurricane Katrina slammed into this legendary Gulf Coast city yesterday, reportedly killing at least 55 people in the region. Historic streets were flooded, buildings such as the Superdome were damaged, and nearby oil production was disrupted, before the weakened storm saturated areas across the South.

Jim Pollard, a spokesman for the Harrison County emergency operations center in Mississippi, said 50 people were killed by Katrina in his county, the Associated Press reported. Most of the deaths were reported at an apartment complex in Biloxi, Miss. Three other people were killed by falling trees in Mississippi, and two died in a traffic accident in Alabama, authorities said.

Damage reports exceeded $9 billion; some estimates were much higher. More than 1 million people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida were without electricity as federal officials rushed to bring supplies ranging from ice to clean water and food to the devastated regions.

''The damage has been great. We know it could have been worse," Governor Kathleen Blanco said at a news conference.

She warned the hundreds of thousands of people who fled the storm to stay away from their homes to allow emergency personnel to do their jobs.

As of last night, 60 or 70 boats were patrolling the New Orleans area, and 130 more were en route, said Mark Smith, public information officer for the Louisiana office of homeland security.

People stranded on their roofs have called in with cellular phones, Smith said.

More than 200 people were rescued by boat within four hours yesterday afternoon, Senator Mary Landrieu said, including 100 elderly residents of a Jefferson Parish nursing home.

She said rescues continued at a steady pace.

''A lot of people are sawing through attics," she said.

Dwight Landreneau, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said the search is hazardous.

In the water ''there are road signs, there are concrete pillars, there are street signs that have fallen down," Landreneau said. ''We are in areas that were neighborhoods that have turned into lakes."

Smith said he expects amateur fishermen to join in the rescue operation.

''The wonderful thing about Louisiana is we fish, and we tend to band together and help one another," Smith said. ''We hope to see huge numbers of volunteers."

The most severe flooding was in east New Orleans.

''This is about as bad a scenario as we could've had," Smith said. ''There are still a lot of people in jeopardy."

At least three people were reported killed in New Orleans, all of them elderly. Two deaths in Alabama were blamed on the storm. in addition to the 50 in Biloxi, Miss., and officials feared that the toll would rise.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reminded everyone that the storm was still causing damage and remained dangerous.

By the evening, Katrina, which at its peak was a Category 5 storm, was downgraded to a tropical storm. The storm's spread decreased through the afternoon.It was expected to hit Tennessee by this morning.

Damage and substantial flooding were reported as far away as Mobile, Ala. Officials also said there were many areas that were cut off and unable to report.

With 140-mile-per-hour winds, Katrina hit land at 6:10 a.m. near Grand Isle, avoiding a direct hit on New Orleans. Much of the city is below sea level and is protected from flooding by a system of levees and pumps.

Walter Monsour, chief administrative officer of East Baton Rouge Parish, said New Orleans had experienced extensive flooding throughout the city, especially in lower-income or lower middle-class areas around Carrollton, Jefferson Highway and Holly Grove.

Flooding was also reported in the central business district, but much of the French Quarter, with its jazz clubs, coffee bars, and elegant restaurants, was less damaged, Monsour said.

As the storm crashed against the city's barriers, pumps reportedly failed in the lower Ninth Ward area. Spills leading to more than eight feet of water washing through the streets were reported.

By 6 p.m. in and around the French Quarter, thousands of people were on the streets, mostly staring at awe at the detritus on the street: huge downed trees, toppled lampposts, full sets of window blinds, crushed cars, dead rats, Mardi Gras beads.

Everywhere there was shattered glass, in piles or scattered like glitter. The facade of a downtown building came off and crushed two cars, filling them with bricks. At least 100 cars in a downtown parking lot were left with all their windows blown out.

Among the most flooded areas was where the 9th Ward meets St. Bernard Parish. A number of people there were reported to be trapped on roofs.

Curtis Miller, 54, lives in east New Orleans and rode out the storm in his house.

''I rode it out but it wasn't too nice. It felt like the storm was lifting my house in the air and then setting it down over and over again," he said.

About 30 looters descended on a general store down the street from Miller's house.

Miller was taking pictures of storm damage nearby when one of the looters saw his camera and flashed a gun.

''They're walking out with armloads of clothes, book bags, toilet paper, hand towels, baby diapers -- anything that is above the water, they're taking it."

Officials in a number of towns surrounding New Orleans also reported widespread devastation, and asked those who had evacuated the storm to stay away for a minimum of five days to as long as two weeks.

In Kenner, police reported catastrophic flooding and said that every road north of Interstate 10 was not passable. Like several other cities, Kenner implemented a 7 p.m. curfew.

Apparently, some of the bodies that have been seen floating in the floodwaters are in the historic Bywater district, in east New Orleans. So far, emergency officials have confirmed that 20 buildings collapsed in New Orleans, but they fear that many more will be discovered.

Windows were blown out in many high-rise buildings, including luxury hotels and the New Orleans Charities Building.

Shortly before dawn, glass splinters rained over the lobby of a hotel. At the Louisiana Superdome, which had been turned into a cavernous storm shelter, parts of the roof peeled off as the storm blew through the city, sending 9,000 people inside scurrying to drier areas.

Rain fell in the Superdome because the top layer of the roof was gone. Under the top layer, entire sections seemed to be missing.

''I never thought I'd see this," said Lynette Wilson of the rain. She said she was happy to be alive so she could celebrate her 51st birthday today.

''It was good at first, it was fine," she said of her overnight refuge to the Superdome.

''Then we started hearing all this noise," Wilson said. ''The first piece popped out, and then we saw another one and another one and another one."