Left: New Orleans Residents attempting to get on a bus headed out of the city towards Texas. Right: Congregation of people outside the Superdome where conditions are becoming increasingly dire.

Source: CNN

A Desperate Situation along the Northern Gulf Coast
With the news from the Crescent City becoming bleaker as the days wear on, the situation has gotten even worse. As evacuees fled the city on Buses bound for the Astrodome, the evacuation attempts of the New Orleans Charity Hospital were halted after it came under gun fire this afternoon.

To add onto all of this, thousands upon thousands of stranded individuals in the city are entering (potentially at least) there 5th day without food and/or water since the onset of Hurricane Force winds late Sunday night. Reports of people just collapsing on the streets due to dehydration have already rolled in. Brawls and trash fires have been springing up at the Superdome where some 20,000 refugees are hold up waiting to be evacuated out of the region. This snippet of an article posted on CNN's website pretty much says it all:

"We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help," the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing.

And what's worse--what we are seeing may only be the beginning
With concerns about looters, dehydration, and health risks, the scene (even though unsettling to say the least) may become even more disturbing as the days, weeks, and eventually, months drag on. No running water, electricity, or working sewers exist in the city, or along any of the areas hit by Katrina. People are in close proximity to one another as they attempt to find a way out of the city, or in the Superdome. Dr. Michael Osterholm mentioned the following in a news article published on the internet

"When you get that many people together under those conditions, just one person who's infected could infect many other un-vaccinated people."

Food-borne outbreaks such as E. coli and transmittable respiratory illnesses are also a threat, he said.

The one saving grace in this mess is a significant number of troops and FEMA employees are en-route to the city, and a few are already there. News Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had issued a "Desperate SOS" to help his people in the Crescent City area.

Tornadoes touch down in VA
The National Weather Service surveyed the damage from a weak tornado that touched down on Tuesday evening associated with the remnants of Katrina. The weak, F0 Tornado touched down in Fauquire county near Orlean with an average path width of 75 yards.

Another stronger, F1 touched down near Marshall, VA with winds approaching 100mph. The base width was significantly larger than the F0 at 300 yards or so.