Devastation in New Orleans

Maybe it wasn't as "not bad" as we all had thought. 80% of the city is under water. Michelle Malkin has a roundup with some links and photos.

In a most frightening interview with WWL TV, Mayor C. Ray Nagin gave the worse-case scenario of events that anyone could possibly imagine. In the beginning of the interview, he stated that New Orleans is devastated.

Of most importance is the breach of the levee between Jefferson and Orleans Parish.

“We probably have 80 percent of our city under water with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet”.

Both airports are underwater

The twin spans are destroyed.

The Yacht club is burned and destroyed.

Mayor Nagin also stated he was not sure of the structural soundness of the highrise. He stated that it is possible that the highrise bridge in east New Orleans could be unstable.

The Mayor also stated that all of Slidell (a city [over] which he has no jurisdiction) is under water. Nagin also stated that there was no clear path in and out of New Orleans, that I-10 is underwater.

Nagin stated that FEMA is coming into town tomorrow and that New Orleans will need to obtain major federal help to rebuild the city of New Orleans.

Update: Katrina May Have Killed 80 in Miss. County. (Hat Tip: LGF)

GULFPORT, Miss. - Rescuers in boats and helicopters searched for survivors of Hurricane Katrina and brought victims, wet and bedraggled, to shelters Tuesday as the extent of the damage across the Gulf Coast became ever clearer. The governor said the death toll in one Mississippi county alone could be as high as 80.

“The devastation down there is just enormous,” Gov. Haley Barbour said on NBC’s “Today” show, the morning after Katrina howled ashore with winds of 145 mph and engulfed thousands of homes in one of the most punishing storms on record in the United States.

Barbour said there were unconfirmed reports of up to 80 deaths in Harrison County — which includes devastated Gulfport and Biloxi — and the number was likely to rise. At least five other deaths across the Gulf Coast were blamed on Katrina.

“We know that there is a lot of the coast that we have not been able to get to,” the governor said. “I hate to say it, but it looks like it is a very bad disaster in terms of human life.”

The Washington Post has a list of places where you can donate to help victims..

Instapundit forwards us to a WaPo article which writes that New Orleans is still being flooded due to a broken levee. It's happenning slower than a storm surge, but the flood waters are still rising...