New Orleans - Latest news

I've always wanted to visit New Orleans with its dark history and spooky cemeteries and vampires and ghosts. Hopefully New Orleans will survive Hurricane Katrina for the 485,000 people who call it home and for the people who love the city from afar. UPDATE 1. 8:43 p.m. Sunday: Read antifa's comment on Digby's Blog.

I called Mama Marisol, got her on her cell phone. She had her crystal ball in the front seat, and she was 'leavin-leavin, cher.' Heading up Basin Street past St. Louis 1, she saw all the skeletons sitting on top of their tombs, rolling their bones and readin' em, shakin' their heads at her.

Not a good sign. UPDATE 2. Noon, Monday: Good round up of bloggers and others in the midst of the storm.

"9:45 a.m.: Homeowner Says Water Rising: Chris Robinson says the water is rising in his New Orleans-area home, but he's 'holding off on breaking through the roof' to escape. Robinson is keeping a hammer, ax and crowbar at the ready, though. He spoke by cellphone as water sent by Hurricane Katrina flooded parts of the city.

and

I'm looking at the wind smashing the trees outside this building, and thinking of those 80-foot-tall pines that snap off even during tropical storms. And that storm surge. All we can do now is pray for our family members in harm's way. ... most frantic calls about downtown hotels, where a number of windows have blown out. Guests huddling in halls. Water blowing in through windows, leaking through ceilings. ... Building collapse reported on Laurel near Washington in the Garden District . . . possibly with people inside. Emergency workers trying to see if they can get a National Guard deuce-and-a-half to get through the storm for possible rescue.

UPDATE 3. 12:30 p.m.: Please give as you are able: the American Red Cross. (See also great suggestion from cookie jill in the comments.) UPDATE 4. 2 p.m.: One bright humorous moment in an otherwise grim day. UPDATE 5. 3:30 p.m.: No word yet, though on NO's famed cemeteries. The risk is contamination on the living.

There also were concerns about everything from environmental damage — major oil refineries and other industrial operations are in Katrina's path — to the possibility that bodies would be dislodged from city cemeteries, where people are interred in aboveground tombs because of the city's high water table.

UPDATE 6. Tuesday 1 p.m.: The situation is extremely depressing and scary as the flood waters rise with trapped people forced up to their attics.

• Katrina blamed for 68 deaths, including 55 in Mississippi • Reports of bodies floating in water in New Orleans • New Orleans 'in state of devastation,' water still rising • Search and rescue efforts under way for survivors