In New Orleans, a Desperate Exodus

Russ Gilbert, waiting at a Chevron station west of town that has become a gathering place for refugees, said he had to leave his 75-year-old mother because she was unwilling to leave their three-story house near Tulane University.

"The water started coming in the sewer pipes last night," Gilbert said. "It seeped through the drain pipes and began filling up the street. By 7 a.m. it was coming up the curb and then flooded the car. We had to dry the carburetor." By 8 a.m., he said, the water was lapping into the house.

At a news conference, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco tersely rejected suggestions that authorities had not moved aggressively enough to evacuate the city: "We begged all those people to get out," Blanco said. "Even those with limited circumstances were given the opportunity" to leave.

Blanco also said she was "furious" about chronic looting in New Orleans. "This is intolerable," she said.

Perhaps the only piece of good news came with regard to the water level, which authorities said was finally leveling off and decreasing as swollen Lake Pontchartrain slowly emptied into the sea. But until two major breaches on the 17th Street and London Avenue canals can be patched, local and federal authorities said, it would be impossible to empty much of the city with repaired pumps or replacements.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, unable to reach the breaches by land or sea, resorted to announcing a dramatic plan to drop highway barriers, gravel and bags of sand weighing as much as 20,000 pounds from military helicopters in an attempt to close the gaps. But as of late Wednesday, the plan had not been implemented.

Army Corps officials also said Wednesday that they planned to purposely breach levees in two areas outside Orleans Parish to help empty some of the flooded areas.

Walter Baumy, chief of the Army Corps engineering division in New Orleans, told reporters in a conference call that authorities could not have been prepared for the scale of Katrina and the severity of the aftermath.

"There was a plan in place," Baumy said. "It was much more than envisioned. The city has never seen anything like this."

The refugees, meanwhile, continued to flee the city by the thousands. Among those traveling west were two patients from East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie, who were discharged to make way for flood victims.

One of the patients, Kathy Reichert, spoke through tears as she described the damage Katrina inflicted. Nine of her extended family's 10 houses had been destroyed, she said. She was hitching a lift to Lake Charles.

Still others were headed the other way, into New Orleans, attempting to evade roadblocks and other barriers in a frantic search for loved ones. Nick Marks traveled from Santa Monica, Calif., and is trying to reach his father, who is trapped in an area flooded with about 15 feet of water.