Deadliest U.S. Disaster In Nearly a Century

New Orleans could quite possibly become a ghost town for the next few months.

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31 -With much of the city inundated and uninhabitable, state and federal officials said today that they would bus thousands of newly homeless residents to Houston, where they will be sheltered in the Astrodome.
In Washington, the Department of Homeland Security assumed control of the federal response to the disaster, with Secretary Michael Chertoff declaring the situation along the Gulf Coast an "incident of national significance."
Hurricane Katrina probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans, the mayor said Wednesday - an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm the nation's deadliest natural disaster since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
"We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and other people dead in attics, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Asked how many, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."
The frightening estimate came as Army engineers struggled to plug New Orleans' breached levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers, while authorities drew up plans to clear out the tens of thousands of people left in the Big Easy and all but abandon the flooded-out city. Many of the evacuees - including thousands now staying in the Superdome - will be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away.