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Hurricane Katrina crossed over Florida hitting Louisiana as a category four storm. Once inland the storm lessened to a category two. The storm affected a majority of the eastern United States.

Hurricane Katrina leaves path of destruction along Gulf Coast, inland

NEW ORLEANS — (AP) Hurricane Katrina plowed into the Gulf Coast at daybreak today with shrieking, 145-mph winds and blinding rain, submerging entire neighborhoods up to the rooflines in New Orleans, hurling boats onto land and sending water pouring into Mississippi’s strip of beachfront casinos.

Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and made a slight turn to the right before coming ashore at 6:10 a.m. CDT near the Louisiana bayou town of Buras. It passed just to the east of New Orleans as it moved inland and later dropped to a 105-mph Category 2 storm, sparing this vulnerable below-sea-level city its full fury.

But destruction was everywhere along Gulf Coast, including an estimated 40,000 homes flooded in St. Bernard Parish just east of New Orleans, said state Sen. Walter Boasso.

Katrina recorded a storm surge of more than 20 feet in Mississippi, where windows of a major hospital were blown out, utility poles dangled in the wind, and billboards were ripped to shreds. In some areas, authorities pulled stranded homeowners from roofs or rescued them from attics. In Alabama, exploding transformers lit up the early morning sky as power outages spread.

“Let me tell you something folks. I’ve been out there. It’s complete devastation,” said Gulfport, Miss., Fire Chief Pat Sullivan, who ventured into the hurricane to check threatened areas.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries as of midday, but emergency officials had not been able to reach some of the hardest-hit areas. Gov. Haley Barbour said he feared deaths among those who chose to ignore evacuation orders.

“We know some people got trapped and we pray they are OK,” Barbour said.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout the day and that Katrina’s potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, was still enough to cause extensive flooding. Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the hurricane center, estimated that the highest winds in New Orleans were about 100 mph.

“I’m not doing too good right now,” Chris Robinson said via cellphone from his home east of the city’s downtown. “The water’s rising pretty fast. I got a hammer and an ax and a crowbar, but I’m holding off on breaking through the roof until the last minute. Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live.”

On the south shore of Lake Ponchartrain, entire neighborhoods of one-story homes were flooded up to the rooflines.