Hurricane Katrina plows into Louisiana coast, raising fears of catastrophe
NEW ORLEANS – Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday with howling, 145-mph winds and blinding rain that ripped away pieces of the roof of the Superdome, knocked out power and flooded some homes to the ceilings.
National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout the day and that Katrina's potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, was still substantial enough to cause extensive flooding.
"I'm not doing too good right now," Chris Robinson said via cellphone from his home east of the city's downtown. "The water's rising pretty fast. I got a hammer and an ax and a crowbar, but I'm holding off on breaking through the roof until the last minute. Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live."
At the Superdome, home to 9,000 storm refugees, wind peeled off pieces of metal on the golden roof, leaving two holes that were visible from the floor. Water dripped in, and people were moved away.
Others stayed and watched as sheets of metal flapped and rumbled loudly. From the floor, looking up more than 19 stories, it appeared to be openings of about six feet long.
General Manager Glenn Menard said he did not know how serious the problem was.
"We have no way of getting anyone up there to look," he said.
Scores of windows were blown out at some of New Orleans' hotels.
Katrina, which had strengthened a day before into a 175-mph Category 5 behemoth before weakening, still had hurricane winds extending 120 miles from its center. Mayfield said at midmorning the worst flooding from storm surge was on the Mississippi coast, east of the eye, with the highest storm surge recorded so far at 22 feet in Bay St. Louis.
Along U.S. Route 90 in Mississippi, the major coastal route that is home to the state's glitzy casinos, sailboats were washed onto the four-lane highway, which was deserted and flooded in areas.
"This is a devastating hit – we've got boats that have gone into buildings," Gulfport Fire Chief Pat Sullivan said as he maneuvered around downed trees in the city. "What you're looking at is Camille II," he said, alluding to the 1969 hurricane that devastated the Mississippi coast.
In Gulf Shores, Ala., which nearly a year ago was ground zero for Hurricane Ivan's destruction, waves crashed over the seawalls and street lights danced in the howling winds.
About 370,000 customers in southeastern Louisiana were without power, said Chenel Lagarde, spokesman for Entergy Corp., the main energy power company in the region.
In New Orleans' French Quarter, where the power went out at 6:35 a.m., hotel residents huddled inside in the midmorning darkness as winds howled, a horizontal rain pinged against the windows, and slate roof tiles tore off.
At the Hotel Le Richelieu, the winds blew open sets of balcony french doors shortly after dawn. Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Elow of New Orleans pressed her weight against the broken doors as a hotel employee tried to secure them.
advertisement
