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Katrina gone, but impact continues

Deaths likely to rise as 3 states cope with flooding, lack of power

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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- U.S. Gulf Coast residents who braved Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday began to face the storm's impact:

Parts of three states had no power, no drinking water, widespread flooding and rising water, limited shelter and food, closed roads, curfews, looting, structural damage, downed communications, poor access to medical care, rising death tolls.

Bill Lokey, the federal coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, described Katrina as probably "the most significant disaster ever to hit the United States in FEMA's history."

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said reports of as many as 80 people dead in Biloxi were credible. Alabama reported two deaths.

Last week Katrina killed 11 people when it made its initial landfall in South Florida as a Category 1 storm.

Louisiana officials have not even tried to assess the number of deaths there.

"This is catastrophic in ways we have not had to deal with," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said after touring affected areas.

"It's mile after mile after mile of homes inundated with water, and it's just endless." (Watch an emotional account of the New Orleans devastation.)

She said the state's hardest-hit parishes are Jefferson, St. Tammany, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Orleans.

One of the biggest problems officials face is an inability to communicate, and an emergency communications network will be established "pretty shortly," Blanco said.

Another problem is the thousands of people left homeless. FEMA's Lokey said the agency typically looks for housing in the same community affected by a disaster but, in this case, that solution may not be possible.

"Nothing will be off the table," he said.

At least 790,000 customers of Entergy Corp. across the state reported no power.

U.S. 90 under water

U.S. 90, the location of many of Mississippi's waterfront casinos, was under water, preventing officials from assessing damage.

At least a dozen gaming places were closed and damaged -- costing the state $500,000 a day in lost tax revenue.

Streets and homes were flooded as far as 6 miles inland from the beach, and the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 between Gulfport and Biloxi were impassable because of debris deposited by floodwaters.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said as many as 1 million households were without power in the state, including 35,000 Entergy Corp. customers. At least 200,000 customers of Entergy and 156,000 customers of Mississippi Power reported no electricity, the companies said.

Rural electric cooperatives were reporting massive damage, though they provided no estimate as to how many customers were affected.

The U.S. Air Force said Tuesday it is sending a cargo plane to Biloxi to evacuate the sick and injured from the hurricane-ravaged region. The C-17 can evacuate 36 people at a time.

New Orleans: Hospitals also evacuate

Ray Nagin, the New Orleans mayor, said his city was without power and drinkable tap water, and was mostly flooded. (View video of storm-ravaged streets in New Orleans.)

"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water. With some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet," he said. In addition, gas leaks were occurring throughout the city. (Full story)

The city's main public hospital, Charity Hospital, was no longer functioning and was being evacuated, said Gov. Blanco. Also under way was the evacuation of more than 1,000 people from the Tulane University Hospital, with the help of the U.S. military, said hospital spokeswoman Karen Troyer Caraway.

Helicopters already were being used to move 200 critically ill patients to other hospitals because rising water was threatening to take out backup generators, she said.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, said there is just "one major way" into New Orleans, and it is largely reserved for emergency vehicles trying to get food, water and rescue equipment into the city "for people who are in desperate need."

Catastrophic damage to two 7-mile-long bridges linking the city to points east has made access difficult. Aerial footage of both the eastbound and westbound spans, carrying Interstate 10 over Lake Pontchartrain, showed torn sections.

One runway at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, west of the city, opened Tuesday, but only for emergency relief flights, said Roland Herwig, an FAA spokesman.

All airports in the area are closed to commercial service and may remain closed Wednesday, he said. (Full story)

Power was lost inside the Superdome, where 10,000 people sought refuge from the storm. With no air conditioning, tensions are rising inside the soggy facility, according to The Associated Press. (Full story)

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, predicted New Orleans would re-emerge intact.

"Can and will New Orleans be rebuilt?" he asked. "Absolutely. Absolutely."

Other developments

Navy officials said Tuesday that buildings and two destroyers at Pascagoula Naval Shipyard and Gulfport Naval Construction Battalion Center on the Mississippi coast sustained damage. Buildings at Mississippi's Keesler Air Force Base were severely damaged, Air Force officials said. The air base is expected to reopen Thursday. Keesler is home to the Air Force's hurricane-hunting aircraft, which fly through the storms to gather meteorological data.

At least 345,000 customers of Alabama Power were without electricity, the company said. Mobile was hard-hit by flooding from the storm.

Oil climbed to a record high near $71 a barrel Tuesday as oil firms assessed damage wrought by Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico, where most oil and gas output was at a standstill and refineries were closed. (Full story)

Wal-Mart said Tuesday that it closed more than 120 stores due to Hurricane Katrina. The world's largest retailer and some of its biggest rivals donated money and supplies to residents in affected areas along the Gulf Coast. (Full story)

CNN Correspondents Jeanne Meserve, John Zarrella, David Mattingly and Producer Jim Spellman contributed to this report.