CNN.com - New Orleans shelters to be evacuated

Two children are hoisted into a Coast Guard rescue helicopter from the roof of their home in New Orleans.

WATCH

Browse/Search

Downtown Mobile is under water (1:15)

Crews rescue people trapped in their homes (2:47)

How the levee protecting New Orleans broke (2:11)

Gallery: Katrina brings destruction

• Gallery: Citizen journalists

• CNN Access: Rude awakening

• E-mail us: Send storm stories

QUICKVOTE

SPECIAL REPORT

• Interactive: Safety Tips

• Gallery: Top 10 worst hurricanes

• Flash: How hurricanes form

• Gallery: Saffir-Simpson scale

• Special Report

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans resembled a war zone more than a modern American metropolis on Tuesday, as Gulf Coast communities struggled to deal with the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Deteriorating conditions in New Orleans will force authorities to evacuate the tens of thousands of people at city shelters, including the Superdome, where a policeman told CNN unrest was escalating.

The officer expressed concern that the situation could worsen overnight after three shootings, looting and a number of attempted carjackings during the afternoon.

Officials could not yet provide accurate estimates for fatalities or time needed for recovery in the area and are focusing, instead, on widespread search-and-rescue operations.

The death toll from the storm so far is estimated at 70 -- mostly in Mississippi. Officials stressed that the number is uncertain and likely to be much higher. (See aerial video of the aftermath -- 3:02)

"A lot of people lost their lives, and we still don't have any idea [how many], because the focus continues to be on rescuing those who have survived," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told reporters Tuesday.

Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, authorities used boats and helicopters to reach stranded residents and search for survivors.

The storm ripped ashore in Louisiana on Monday morning with winds topping 140 mph before scourging Mississippi and Alabama.

The U.S. Coast Guard said its crews assisted in the rescue Monday of about 1,200 people stranded by high water in the New Orleans area, and thousands more were rescued Tuesday morning.

Waters rising in New Orleans

Water continued to rise in downtown New Orleans, reaching 12 feet in some places Tuesday afternoon.

The city had no power, no drinking water, dwindling food supplies, widespread looting, smoke rising on the horizon and the sounds of gunfire. At least one large building was ablaze Tuesday. (Full story)

Frustration was also rising among people who now find themselves refugees in their own city.

As many as 30,000 people were being housed in the Louisiana Superdome, where toilets were overflowing and there was no air conditioning to provide relief from 90-degree heat.

Blanco said officials are making plans to evacuate people from the Superdome and other shelters, but she did not say when that might happen or where they might be taken.

The city's main public hospital, Charity Hospital, was no longer functioning and was being evacuated, Blanco said.

Also under way was the evacuation of more than 1,000 people from Tulane University Hospital with the help of the U.S. military, hospital spokeswoman Karen Troyer Caraway said.

"It's an unbelievable situation," she said. "We're completely surrounded by water. There's looting going on in the streets around the hospital."

Hundreds of people were looting businesses downtown, throwing rocks through store windows and hauling away goods.

Members of the National Guard were seen moving down Canal Street at Bourbon Street, on the edge of the French Quarter, in an effort to stop the looting.

Nearly all of the parishes in the New Orleans area -- Orleans, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines, St. Tammany and Jefferson -- put curfews in place.

U.S. Coast Guard crews in helicopters continued to pluck people from the roofs of their inundated houses, while local rescue crews used boats to reach residents marooned by the floods. (Watch the video account of unanswered screams -- 1:57)

Inmates from a flooded parish jail were relocated to a freeway on-ramp, where they sat out in the sun, under the watch of armed officers.

Water from Lake Pontchartrain was pouring into the downtown area from a levee breach, rising steadily throughout the day. (Map)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported two major breaches in the levee system that protects New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level.

The Corps said it planned to bring "all assets available" into the city to plug the breaches, including rocks, gigantic sand bags and cranes.

The entire downtown area of Slidell, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish, was under 15 feet of water, emergency management officials said.

Getting anything into New Orleans will be difficult because of the damage to two, 7-mile bridge spans that carry Interstate 10 over Lake Pontchartrain, linking the city to points east.

"This is a tragedy of great proportions, greater than any we've see in our lifetimes," Blanco said. "We know many lives have been lost."

The governor also said it was "impossible to even begin to estimate" how long it will take to restore power and drinking water in New Orleans.

Death toll rising in Mississippi

Hurricane Katrina has inflicted more damage to Mississippi beach towns than did Hurricane Camille, and its death toll is likely to be higher, the state's governor said Tuesday.

Camille killed 143 people when it struck the state's coastal counties in 1969 and a total of 256 after it swept inland.

"There are structures after structures that survived Camille with minor damage that are not there any more," Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters in Jackson.

Katrina destroyed "every one" of the casinos that raked in a half-million dollars per day to state coffers, Barbour said after a helicopter tour of the affected areas.

"There were 10- and 20-block areas where there was nothing -- not one home standing," he said.

Barbour would not give a confirmed death toll, but said it was likely to be higher than previous reports of 50 to 80 dead. (Full story)

Jason Green, of the Harrison County Coroner's Office, said funeral homes in Gulfport had received 26 bodies since the storm passed Monday.

In the small town of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, search-and-rescue crews put paint marks on homes known to contain bodies, because there weren't enough refrigerated trucks to remove the corpses.

In Biloxi, an employee of the city's Grand Casino was awed by the extent of the damage.

"I was a senior in high school when Hurricane Camille hit, in 1969, and I have never seen destruction of this magnitude," said Scott Richmond.

Part of the city's sea wall was washed away, and nearly every downtown building had extensive damage to its first level.

State emergency management officials said 80 percent of the state's residents had no power.

In Biloxi, a 25-foot swell of water crashed in from the Gulf of Mexico Monday and inundated structures there.

Up to 30 people are believed to have been killed when an apartment complex on the beach collapsed in the storm.

"I held her hand as tight as I could and she told me, 'You can't hold me.' She said 'Take care of the kids and the grandkids,' " he sobbed.

Streets and homes were flooded as far as 6 miles inland from the beach, and looting was reported in Biloxi and in Gulfport, Mississippi, officials said.

Other developments

• In Mobile, Alabama, the storm pushed water from Mobile Bay into downtown, submerging large sections of the city, and officials imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew. An oil drilling platform broke away from its moorings and lodged under a bridge that carries U.S. Highway 98 over the Mobile River. (Full story)

• The impact of Katrina on U.S. oil production and refinery capabilities may be worse than initial reports estimated and could lead to a national gas crisis in the short-term, analysts warned Tuesday. (Full story)

• President Bush was returning to Washington two days ahead of schedule to help oversee Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, the White House announced. (Full story)

• The U.S. military Tuesday started to move ships and helicopters to the region at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid in rescue and medical needs, military officials announced. (Full story)

CNN's Anderson Cooper, Kathleen Koch, David Mattingly, Jeanne Meserve, Miles O'Brien, Jim Spellman, Gary Tuchman and John Zarrella contributed to this report.

New Orleans shelters to be evacuated

Floodwaters rising, devastation widespread in Katrina's wake