Body count rises along Gulf Coast
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said on ABC: "The biggest concern is that this whole situation is totally overwhelming. I know the desperation of all of the folks who had evacuated. I know they desperately want to get in. In most cases, it is totally impossible for them to get in. The streets are inundated with water."
In Mississippi late Monday, Harrison County emergency operations center spokesman Jim Pollard said about 50 people had died in the county, with some 30 of the dead at a beachside apartment complex in Biloxi.
"This is our tsunami," Mayor A. J. Holloway told the Biloxi Sun Herald.
In Louisiana, officials said people in some swamped neighborhood were feared dead but gave no immediate numbers.
Katrina's surge also demolished major bridges along the Mississippi coast. The storm swept sailboats onto city streets in Gulfport and obliterated hundreds of waterfront homes, businesses, community landmarks, and condominiums.
A foot of water swamped the emergency operations center at the Hancock County Courthouse – which sits 30 feet above sea level. The back of the courthouse collapsed under the onslaught.
The hurricane knocked out power to more than 1 million people from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, and authorities said it could be two months before electricity is restored to everyone. Katrina also disrupted petroleum output in the very center of the U.S. oil-refining industry and rattled energy markets.
According to preliminary assessments by AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk assessment company, the insurance industry faces as much as $26 billion in claims from Katrina. That would make Katrina more expensive than the previous record-setting storm, Hurricane Andrew, which caused some $21 billion in insured losses in 1992 to property in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on CBS that it will be "quite awhile" before those displaced by the hurricane can return, particularly in areas close to downtown New Orleans. In some places, "it's going to be weeks at least before people can get back."
Mike Spencer of Gulfport made the mistake of trying to ride out the storm in his house. He told NBC that he used his grandson's little surfboard to make his way around the house as the water rose around him.
Finally, he said, "as the house just filled up with water, it forced me into the attic, and then I ended up kicking out the wall and climbing up to a tree because the houses around me were just disappearing."
He said he wrapped himself around a tree branch and waited four or five hours.
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