After Katrina

From the Associated Press...

Gulf Coast residents staggered from the body-blow inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, with more than a million people sweltering without power, miles of lowlands swamped and at least 55 dead _ a number likely to increase as rescuers reach the hardest-hit areas.

Even with Katrina to the north, a large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee gave way Monday afternoon in New Orleans, sending a churning sea of water coursing across the western part of the city.

Residents who had ridden out the brunt of Katrina now faced a second more insidious threat as flood waters continued their ascent well into the night....

The death toll jumped late Monday when Harrison County emergency operations center spokesman Jim Pollard said an estimated 50 people had died in the county, with some 30 dead at a beach-side apartment complex in Biloxi....

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials refused to confirm the deaths. Three other people were killed by falling trees elsewhere in Mississippi and two died in a traffic accident in Alabama, authorities said....

At New Orleans' Superdome, where power was lost early Monday, some 9,000 refugees spent a second night in the dark bleachers. With the air conditioning off, the carpets were soggy, the bricks were slick with humidity and anxiety was rising.

Posted by Danny Carlton at August 30, 2005 06:10 AM