Katrina Strikes Again: Makes Landfall, Heads North

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Hurricane Katrina made landfall Monday morning near Grande Isle, La., having weakened a bit overnight but still a monstrous storm with 150-mph winds and capable of becoming the biggest disaster to ever hit New Orleans and other areas as it moves northeast. Mississippi and Alabama were also on alert for major storm surges.

New Orleans already was seeing strong winds and rain early Monday. NBC's Carl Quintanilla, riding out the storm at a downtown hotel, said dozens of windows had been blown out as the storm moved in.

But the city did get a bit of good news: Katrina was edging slightly to the east, which would put the western eyewall – the weaker side of the strongest winds – over the city, which lies below sea level.

“It’s not as bad as the eastern side,” said Eric Blake of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But, he added, “It’ll be plenty bad enough.”

An estimated 1 million people have fled their homes, heading out in bumper-to-bumper traffic or huddling in evacuation centers like the Superdome for safety. Experts said that by this time Tuesday, parts of New Orleans could be under 30 feet of water.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he believed 80 percent of the city’s 480,000 residents had heeded an unprecedented mandatory evacuation as Katrina threatened to become the most powerful storm ever to slam the city.

“New Orleans may never be the same,” warned National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

Crude oil futures spiked to more than $70 a barrel for the first time Monday as Katrina targeted an area crucial to the country’s energy infrastructure, shutting off an estimated 1 million barrels of refining capacity.

U.S. natural gas futures also shot to a record high on Monday, as traders feared Katrina would do lasting damage to Gulf of Mexico supplies, draining storage tanks and tightening supplies ahead of winter.

SHELTER OF LAST RESORT. The Louisiana Superdome became the shelter of last resort for thousands of the area’s poor, homeless and frail. Among those who lined up for blocks as National Guardsmen searched them for guns, knives and drugs were residents who hobbled to safety on crutches, canes and stretchers.

“We just took the necessities,” said Michael Skipper, who pulled a wagon loaded with bags of clothes and a radio. “The good stuff – the television and the furniture – you just have to hope something’s there when you get back. If it’s not, you just start over.”

The head of Jefferson Parish, which includes major suburbs and juts all the way to the storm-vulnerable coast, said some residents who stayed would be fortunate to survive.

“I’m expecting that some people who are die-hards will die hard,” said parish council President Aaron Broussard.

An estimated 1 million of the area’s 1.3 million people were believed to have evacuated, emergency officials said. Some 4,000 National Guardsmen were mobilized to prevent looting and to help with any needed rescues in the New Orleans area.

The evacuation itself claimed lives. Three New Orleans nursing home residents died Sunday after being taken by bus to a Baton Rouge church. The cause was likely dehydration.

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO? By early Monday, city streets were empty and bars were closed as gusts up to 55 mph were felt. Landfall of the eye was expected around 8 a.m. ET at Grand Isle, about 60 miles south of New Orleans.

Katrina, which cut across Florida last week, intensified into a colossal Category 5 over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, reaching top winds of 175 mph before weakening to 155 mph as it neared the coast. The storm was downgraded slightly to a Category 4 shortly after 3 a.m. ET.

At 5 a.m. ET, Katrina’s eye was 90 miles south-southeast of New Orleans. A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line. A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line.

The storm held a potential surge of 18 to 28 feet that would easily top New Orleans' hurricane protection levees, as well as bigger waves and as much as 15 inches of rain.

For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that’s up to 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry from the Mississippi River on one side, Lake Pontchartrain on the other.

The fear is that flooding could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, as well as waste from ruined septic systems.

Nagin said he expected the pumping system to fail during the height of the storm. The mayor said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was standing by to get the system running, but water levels must fall first.

“We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared,” he said Sunday. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

STREAMING OUT. At the peak of the New Orleans evacuation, 18,000 people an hour were streaming out, state police said.

On inland highways in Louisiana and Mississippi, heavy traffic remained the rule into the night as the last evacuees tried to reach safety. In Orange, Texas, Janie Johnson of the American Red Cross described it as a “river of headlights.”

In Washington, D.C., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it has been advised that the Waterford nuclear plant about 20 miles west of New Orleans has been shut down as a precautionary measure.

New Orleans has not taken a direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA ON ALERT. Evacuation orders also were posted all along the Mississippi coast, and the area’s casinos, built on barges, were closed early Saturday. Bands of wind-whipped rain increased Sunday night and roads in some low areas were beginning to flood.

Alabama officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying coastal areas. Mobile Mayor Michael Dow said flooding could be worse than the 9-foot surge that soaked downtown during Hurricane Georges in 1998. Residents of several barrier islands in the western Florida Panhandle were also urged to evacuate.

Katrina hit the southern tip of Florida as a much weaker storm Thursday and was blamed for nine deaths. It left miles of streets and homes flooded and knocked out power to about 1.45 million customers. It was the sixth hurricane to hit Florida in just over a year.