In downtown New Orleans, streets that were relatively clear in the hours after the storm were filled with 1 to 1 1/2 feet of water Tuesday morning after two levee breaches sent water from Lake Pontchartrain (search) coursing through city streets.
Water was knee-deep around the Superdome and lapped at the edge of the French Quarter. Canal Street was literally a canal. Little islands of red ants floated in the gasoline-fouled waters through downtown. The Hyatt Hotel and other high-rise buildings around the Superdome had rows and rows of shattered windows.
Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps of Engineers (search) said a breach in the eastern part of the city was causing flooding and "significant evacuations" in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes. He did not know how many people were affected.
The city considered bringing in barges to provide electricity.
Authorities said there was also a levee breach in the western part of the city that began Monday afternoon and may have grown overnight.
National Guardsmen brought in people from outlying areas to the Superdome in the backs of big 2 1/2-ton 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.
Louisiana officials said people in some swamped neighborhood were feared dead, but gave no immediate numbers.
"All I know is when my people go out, they tell me there are a lot of people awaiting rescue. I hear there are hundreds of people still on their rooftops," said Gen. Ralph Lupin, commander of National Guard troops at the Superdome in New Orleans, where some 10,000 people had taken shelter.
Louisiana emergency operations officials in Baton Rouge said people could not go home. Bridges connecting mainland Louisiana and New Orleans were washed away and parts of Interstate 10 were underwater.
