Aftermath

You've probably satisfied your need for Katrina knowledge before coming here, but I feel like posting a follow-up, given what's happened...

With the levee breaches--two of them now, apparently--Steve Gregory's blog at Weather Underground terms it "a 'slow motion version' of the worst case scenario for New Orleans." A lot of the info I'm going to collect here for you comes from somewhere on nola.com, which is the home for the Times-Picayune, (author of the report Wilhite sent me):

--60,000 people in the Superdome, as hotels have sent their guests/refugees there; (and the aforelinked Steve Gregory reports that the occupants are getting restless)
--Fires have started which can't be attended to (you'll recall similar things happening in Grand Forks, ND after flooding in 1997
--Looting has started
--Devastation photos can be found here, mostly with AP photos though, as the T-P staff has had to evacuate their offices after the levee breaches
--Martial law has been declared in various places (and not Marshall law, which is presumably Adam throwing people in jail, as an understandably frazzled nola.com staffer let slip by earlier today.)

There's little to no water, sanitation, or food, and they'll need to be displacing even more people soon. I'd suggest if you can swing it, try to give a little something to the Red Cross or other acceptable organization.

One last thought: The nola site probably ought to take down the text ad proclaiming "FLOOD INSURANCE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"