New reports of NOLA levees breaking (the levee from Lake Pontchartrain). I know I'm a hypocondriac, but what happens when the storm moves upstream, and all that water comes down. The mississippi could be flooding for days/weeks.

The same foxnews story has some pictures associated.

Anyway, some picture archives are scattered around.
Here's one from WWL-TV

Here's another from Yahoo.

Stormtrack has more, and deserves a hat tip.

Damage/body count, estimates at 20-25 billion, and 58 people so far. I suspect it will be a while before we find out.

In other news, fill up your gas tank now, because gas prices are going to spike in many areas of the country (not, apparently, hawaii, thank god).

I'm not sure what that will do to Texas; we have our own refineries in Port Author (about an hour away) and Corpus Christi (about 4 hours away). The gas companies will probably 'share the love', sinec gas isn't any cheaper in those cities (and bizzarely, we couldn't even find a gas station in Port Arthor, which is just one giant refinery).

Update: Glenn Reynolds (and Daniel Drezner) complain about too much hurricane hype (or as Drezner puts it 'hurricane porn". I might be guilty of that myself, in this case. But as I mentioned, I don't expect to see a storm of this intensity for some time; and it missed us by about 350 miles.

Update2: A longer report of the levee break in NOLA here.

Update3: NOLA declares martial law. Some predictions have come true, regarding flooding in the city, pollution, critters, etc. Canal street is now a canal, whereas yesterday it wasn't. This is due to the levee from the lake breaking, which was predicted on Sunday by some. Maybe it was Steve Gregory or NOAA, sorry I can't remember. The American Radioworks essay described this somewhat. I believe the phenomina had to do with the fact that the increased rainful increased the Lake size (which is very shallow to begin with), and storm surge from the storm as it moves south, increases waves on the lake, until the levee is breached. Once it's breached, the only place for the water to is within NOLA. I don't think the flooding is that bad; looks like a foot or two in the french quarter area (which is several miles away from the lake. Anyway, hopefully as I said the river levees will hold.

Update4: According to the Times Picayune newspaper, water is still rising as of Tuesday morning, and they have evacuated their staff. Hope they figure out how to seal the levee breech. I think the cause is pretty obvious, but I'm not there. Lots of horror stories on the above site. And now that martial law has been declared, getting info will be tough.

Update5: A video on how the levee broke; it's actually a canal levee. May be days before it's fixed, no estimates yet.

Update6: According to news reports from CNN (TV), the water is still rising, in the french quarter it's about 2' currently. This will continue until lake ponchestein (sp) and NOLA level out, since now NOLA and the lake are basically teh same thing. Dunno if the pumps are working or not, they may be more effective once the breech is repaired. May be a few days for water to drain, unlike other areas, ie mobile, boluxi...which is why experts were so concerned about NOLA in the first place. Wizbang reports 'completely destroyed', I disagree, so far. I think the water will continue to rise though, but won't result in loss of life (too much), since one bridge is still open, and the water rise is gradual. So this isn't the dooms day scenario forcasted (thank god). Final update of the day, i swear :)