Situation is changing rapidly. This is a compilation thread to keep track what is happening.
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http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html
10:42 - Rising waters continue in N.O. due to failed pumps and breached levees at the 17th Street Canal and the Ninth Ward. Rising waters caused one hospital to evacuate patients to the Louisiana Superdome.
9:35 A.M. Marshal Law in effect in Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish. 60 percent of homes in Plaquemines Parish under water.
9:33 A.M. Uptown fared much better than the rest of the city. - Andy Jacobs, Uptown caller.
8:39 A.M. WWL-TV studios are being evacuated as rising water is coming into the station. The French Quarter is taking on water and water is expected to rise in the city for the next few days.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083000689.html
Water flowing from the damaged levee near Lake Pontchartrain could have equally catastrophic effects, only unfolding more slowly.
Water levels in Lake Pontchartrain and the connecting 17th Street Canal are normally six feet higher than the surrounding city. The levees keep the waters from flowing down into this low-lying city, much of which is below sea level.
The damage to the 17th Street Canal and its levee means that the water from Lake Pontchartrain is now free to flow down to inundate hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings here.
Once it flows in, the water will not drain from New Orleans because of the very levees that protect the city and that largely held during the hurricane. Those levees, built to keep water out, are now keeping the water in, and reports from across the city indicate that water levels are rising.
New Orleans normally uses pumps to get the water out when necessary, but the city has been without power since the hurricane struck with 140-mph winds around daybreak Monday.
