Jaquin Johnson (right) two, and Heaven Girod, five months, are evacuated by Larry Harrison from a flooded area in New Orleans yesterday.
GULFPORT, Mississippi (AP):
RESCUERS IN boats and helicopters bypassed the dead yesterday as they struggled to save thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina, stranded on rooftops, as the scope of the disaster became clearer with every tale of misery.
"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."
The death toll in one Mississippi county alone could be as high as 80, that state's governor said.
Bill Lokey, an official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), called 'Katrina' "the most significant natural disaster to hit the United States."
Looting broke out in Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. On New Orleans' Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, looters sloshed through hip-deep water and ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewellery stores.
LOOTER SHOT
Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that in one case, a looter shot and wounded another looter.
"At first light, the devastation is greater than our worst fears. It's just totally overwhelming," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the morning after 'Katrina' howled ashore with winds of 145 mph (233 kph) and engulfed thousands of homes in one of the most punishing storms on record in the United States.
In New Orleans, water began rising in the streets yesterday morning, apparently because of a break on a levee along a canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain, prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals. New Orleans lies mostly below sea level and is protected by a network of pumps, canals and levees, but many of the pumps were not working yesterday morning.
Officials began using helicopters to drop 3,000-pound (1,350-kilogramme) sandbags into the breach, and expressed confidence the problem could be solved within hours.
All day, rescuers were also seen using helicopters to drop lifelines to victims and pluck them from the roofs of homes cut off by flood waters.
"We know that last night we had over 300 folks that we could confirm were on top of roofs and waiting for our assistance," Capt. Dave Callahan of the Coast Guard in Mississippi said.
DEATH TOLL RISING
National Guardsmen brought in people from outlying areas to New Orleans' Superdome in the backs of big 2 1/2-tonne army trucks. Louisiana's wildlife enforcement department also brought people in on the backs of their pickups. Some were wet, some were in wheelchairs, some were holding babies and nothing else.
Nevertheless, it was clear the death toll would rise sharply, with one survivor after another telling of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the flood waters rose around them.
Along the coast, tree trunks, downed power lines and trees, and chunks of broken concrete in the streets prevented rescuers from reaching victims. Swirling water in many areas contained hidden dangers. Crews worked to clear highways. Along one Mississippi highway, motorists themselves used chainsaws to remove trees blocking the road.
Tens of thousands of people will need shelter for weeks if not months, said FEMA Director Mike Brown. And once the floodwaters go down, "it's going to be incredibly dangerous" because of structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in homes, he said.
