By Brett Martel
New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina has probably killed thousands of people here, mayor Ray Nagin has said.
"We know there are a significant number of bodies in the water," he said. Other people had died in attics.
Asked how many people he believed had died in the hurricane, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."
'The challenge is an engineering nightmare' The frightening prediction came as army engineers struggled to plug the breached levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers, while authorities drew up plans to move about 25 000 people to Houston in a huge bus convoy and all but abandon this flooded city.
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Governor Kathleen Blanco said the situation was desperate and there was no choice but to clear out.
"The logistical problems are impossible and we have to move people from the shelters," she said. "It's becoming untenable.
There's no power. It's becoming more difficult to get food and water in, just essentials."
The Pentagon began mounting one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in US history, sending four navy ships to the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other emergency supplies, as well as the hospital ship Comfort, search helicopters and elite water-rescue teams. American Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the region in the agency's biggest relief operation yet.
Hundreds of people wandered aimlessly along Interstate 10 The death toll linked to Hurricane Katrina has reached at least 110 in Mississippi alone. But Louisiana has put aside the counting of the dead to concentrate on rescuing the living, many of whom are trapped on rooftops and in attics.
Two levees broke on Tuesday, spilling water into the streets, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city and inundating kilometres of homes. Much of the city will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.
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