From The Washington Post, 8/30/05:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083000689.html

New Orleans Filling With Flood Waters Due to Breached Levee

By Peter Whoriskey and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, August 30, 2005; 11:15 AM

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 --

Hurricane Katrina and its rains have passed, but this city is filling
with flood waters.

The sense of relief that residents felt Monday morning when the city
was not immediately inundated by a storm surge overflowing its
protective levees was replaced late Monday night and Tuesday morning
with dread because of a levee that was damaged by the hurricane.

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.

It is difficult to know how many people are threatened because of the
mass evacuation before Hurricane Katrina.

A caller to a local radio station reported that the flood water in her
New Orleans home was rising and that she couldn't swim.

Boating is rapidly becoming the best way to travel here.

If the water keeps rising and cuts off power from emergency
generators, the Tulane University Hospital and Clinic might have to
evacuate, a spokeswoman said on CNN.

The levee damage was first noticed during an assessment flight Monday
afternoon, but its extent and significance were not immediately
understood.

By late Monday, the rising water levels here have made its
significance apparent.

The rising flood waters in the city of 485,000 people were preventing
residents from returning to their homes.

At the Superdome, designated by Mayor Ray Nagin as one of 10 refuges
of last resort for people who were unable to evacuate, National Guard
troops allowed dozens of refugees to sleep on the walkway surrounding
the huge building as conditions inside deteriorated, but authorities
refused to let them leave.

As many as 10,000 people took shelter in the Superdome starting Sunday
when Nagin ordered the mandatory evacuation of the city.

As the hurricane struck Monday morning, the high winds tore off much
of the outer skin covering the Superdome's 9.7-acre roof and punched
two holes clear through it, allowing rainwater to leak in.

By Tuesday, bathrooms were filthy, trash barrels were overflowing and
stadium aisles and steps were slick with humidity because of the lack
of air conditioning since the power failed during Katrina's onslaught.

Under those conditions, some of the refugees were allowed to take
their bedding out onto the concourse to cool off and breathe some
fresh air.

One group was dismayed to hear on a newscast that authorities in
suburban Jefferson Parish were not allowing residents to return until
next Monday, the Associated Press reported.

The group groaned, and one woman cried.

"I know people want to leave, but they can't leave," said Gen. Ralph
Lupin, a National Guard commander at the Superdome, the AP reported.

"There's three feet of water around the Superdome."

Doug Thornton, a regional vice president for the company that manages
the Superdome, said two people have died there, the news service
reported.

He did not provide details.

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Harry