Hurricane Katrina pounded vulnerable New Orleans with howling winds on Monday, damaging the roof of the Superdome stadium where thousands had sought refuge, knocking out power, flooding streets and threatening a wide swath of the United States Gulf Coast.
The large and extremely dangerous hurricane claimed the lives of at least three people and sent crude oil prices soaring following the evacuation of offshore rigs in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and the closure of refineries in Louisiana.
Packing winds of 240kph, the potentially devastating storm made landfall on a Louisiana barrier island early on Monday before losing strength as it hit the mainland east of New Orleans, sparing the city a direct hit.
Three elderly people died, apparently from dehydration, as they were being evacuated from a nursing home in New Orleans on Sunday, police said. Katrina claimed seven lives as it slammed into Florida last week.
Hundreds of thousands of people in this city of 1,4-million people and other areas of the southern US state of Louisiana lost power as the storm slammed ashore.
Among those affected were about 10 000 people who did not evacuate New Orleans and sheltered at the Superdome, which authorities declared a ”refuge of last resort”.
Making matters worse for the anxious residents huddled in the massive arena, strong winds tore off parts of the roof, letting water pour into the building.
”Huge layers of the roof have begun to peel off. It was hanging off; it was flapping in the wind,” a reporter for local CBS television station WWL-TV said.
The wind knocked down trees and power lines, smashed windows and sent roof tiles flying in the historic French Quarter of the low-lying city.
Emergency officials speaking at a teleconference reported that surging water topped a levee and knocked out four pumping stations. Because much of the city lies below sea level, New Orleans regularly has to pump floodwater out of the streets.
In one neighbourhood, more than 1m of water was reported, while a bridge connecting a parking lot to the city’s Memorial hospital collapsed.
In nearby Jefferson Parish, there were reports that a building had collapsed, but emergency officials were not immediately able to very the report.
In the small town of Covington, violent winds and downed trees prevented firefighters from responding to a fire that engulfed a house, local television reported.
While New Orleans took a severe pounding, it was spared what it initially feared would be a direct hit. Hundreds of thousands evacuated the city and other low-lying areas ahead of the hurricane.
The storm lost a little of its monstrous power overnight as it swirled over the Gulf of Mexico, but still ranked at category four, the second-highest level on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale as it slammed ashore. It weakened another notch after hitting the mainland.
Officials warned that Katrina remains extremely dangerous and urged residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to hunker down.
”Coastal flooding of 18 to 22 feet [6m to 7m] above normal tide levels, locally as high as 28 feet [9m], along with large and dangerous battering waves, can be expected,” said Stacy Stewart, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Centre.
Oil markets were keeping a close watch on the hurricane, which forced the evacuation oil rigs and platforms off the US Gulf Coast, sending crude prices shooting to new highs.
New York’s benchmark light sweet crude for October delivery hit a high of $70,80 in early Asian trading hours. It eased a little after the hurricane was downgraded a notch. At 6pm (10am GMT) in Singapore, the contract fell back to $69,06, still up $2,93 from Friday’s closing price on the US market.
US President George Bush declared a state of emergency that clears the way for federal aid to affected areas.
”We cannot stress enough the dangers this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities,” Bush said from his Texas ranch on Sunday.
At 3pm GMT on Monday, the centre of the storm was 56km east-northeast of New Orleans and 72km west-southwest of Biloxi, a coastal Mississippi city popular with gamblers and deep-sea anglers.
Hurricane-force winds extended 200km from the centre of the storm, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre. — AFP
