Some 10,000 persons who took refuge from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ huge, covered Superdome stadium are in jeopardy from rising flood waters, Louisiana’s governor said Tuesday.
“There’s water lapping at the foot of the Superdome now,” Governor Kathleen Blanco told reporters.
“I think I saw people walking in at about knee-deep as they were trying to get into the Superdome from the ground floor.”
Flood waters continued to rise in New Orleans after Katrina broke two levees separating the city from Lake Pontchartrain. The city is below sea level.
The storm tore the dome’s roof, and bathrooms are reportedly backed up.
The huge Superdome is home to the Saints football team and the site of the largest-ever indoor rock concert, when 87,500 fans saw the Rolling Stones, and hosted 80,000 for Pope John Paul II in 1987.
City officials urged residents to take refuge in the Superdome before the storm struck late Sunday, and have taken survivors plucked from rooftops there as well.
“They’re putting more and more survivors into the Superdome, and the conditions there are very difficult.
“It’s not a very comfortable situation right now. You can imagine — there’s no power. It’s hot. You know, difficult to get food to them.
“But we’re worrying first about the medically needy, so we have to set up shelters and make sure that their medical needs can be taken care of.
“Then in the next phase, we’ll be looking for places to evacuate the rest of the folks who found themselves at the Superdome,” Blanco said.
