Water Breaches New Orleans Levees

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http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...444812,00.html

RITA BREACHES LEVEES




Water has begun cascading through New Orleans after three levees were breached by rising sea levels caused by Hurricane Rita.

Water levels have begun rising by three inches a minute.

The levees were originally damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Officials worry more levees will fail, causing renewed flooding in the stricken city.

Rita has weakened from the maximum Category 5 to a Category 4 as it swirls across the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to hit landfall Saturday lunchtime as a Category 3 storm.

It has already claimed its first victims - 24 people were killed in a bus taking elderly people away from the area burst into flames near Dallas.

The 370-mile wide hurricane is closing in on Texas - and the heart of the US oil-refining industry - with howling 135-mph winds.


Southeast Texas is expected to suffer Hurricane-force winds for 16 hours with 5.2 million people affected and 6,000 homes destroyed, officials say.

It has also changed course with a sharper-than-expected turn to the right that could see it spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit.

Thousands of people have been fleeing the area as the storm approaches.

Houston's two airports have been crammed with people trying to evacuate. The chaos was exacerbated because many airport staff failed to show up for work.

Authorities have reported that both of the airports will be closed this evening.

Thousands have been fleeing the city of Galveston - although many became stuck in their cars, running out of petrol and sweltering on roadsides in 100-degree heat.

this is very bad news, and i feel for the people who lived there

[Stu]

its awful to here about it Hope everyone will be okay.
-Stu

[Rampage.]

the reason the bus caught fire is cause it was scaring elderly people on oxygen, and it blew up, just saying that if no one knew

[Lucky]

sad