Will law schools accept “emergency transfers” from New Orleans-area schools that may not be able to start back up for months? Ben Jarrell, a law student at Loyola, is wondering. There don’t seem to be any definitive answers yet.

At least one university is planning to accept undergraduate students on an emergency basis — Arizona State University in faraway Tempe, AZ. Sun Devil grad Brian sends along wth following e-mail, which was forwarded to him:

In accordance with the President’s request that we do everything we can to accommodate students who have been displaced by the hurricane devastation, a plan has been developed to help these students enroll at ASU for Fall 2005.

Everyone is being asked to be as flexible as possible as students are personally “walked-through” the complete enrollment process, including admission, advisement, and registration. Staff will be available to provide personal assistance to students in other offices, too, such as Student Financial Assistance, Residential Life, Parking and Transit, the ASU Bookstore, and Counseling and Consultation, among others. We have already heard from more than twenty students who are in this situation, and have at least three who have begun the enrollment process.

To ensure that they receive complete, accurate information, and to ensure that they move through the enrollment process and join their classes as quickly as possible, please refer all student and/or parent inquires to the University Registrar’s Office at (480) 965-7302, where the process begins. Thank you for your cooperation.

Joe Loy posting, to pass along a CNN listing of important phone numbers, links, etc., re Katrina. Scroll down for the lists. Thanks (again! :) to my sister-in-law Patty Loomer Ash for this tip.

Dane reports via e-mail: “CNN has an unconfirmed report of smoke at Bourbon Street and Canal. In other words, Bourbon Street might be on fire.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Nagin is now being widely quoted as saying, “We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water. … Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands.” The BBC has translated this into “‘Thousands dead’ in New Orleans,” and even sent out a breaking-news alert announcing it.

However, after his comments last night about how the attempts to fix the levee breach had been abandoned, I am predisposed to believe that Mayor Nagin tends to talk through his hat and doesn’t necessarily have the facts to back up what he’s saying. The man doesn’t seem to have much of a “filter,” if you will, between his private thoughts and his public statements, and he doesn’t seem to fully grasp that what he says is taken as having a lot of authority, and there’s a lot of responsibility that goes with that. So while what he’s saying about the death toll may very well be true (God forbid), I hardly think his is a definitive estimate.

It’s true, of course, that death tolls in natural disasters tend to rise. But wild early estimates of death tolls, formulated when everything seems utterly bleak and based on guesswork rather than facts, are sometimes wrong. As I recall, the headline of one of the New York papers on September 13, 2001 was “10,000 FEARED DEAD.” So let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Mayor Nagin might be right — I’d even go so far as to say, based on my own guesswork, that he probably is — but I’m not yet convinced that it is pointless to hope and pray he might be wrong.

Guest Posted by Antonia

Fox news in located on the freeway at around exit 235 A
There are thousands of folk stranded up there with no idea where to go, no water, no food, no shade in 90 degree weather.

It seems at this moment the national guard has sent a few trucks up there to pick up a few of the people.

I think we need to start dropping water / food from the air!

WWL-TV: “Army Corps: Water has become level with the Lake in the city so no more water should flow into the city, except at high tide.” (And presumably the water that flows in at high tide will then flow out at low tide.)

President Bush will tap the emergency oil reserve in an attempt to ease the energy crunch caused by Katrina.

However, WWL reports: “Gas prices expected to rise by as much as $1.10 by this weekend.”

UPDATE: Er, I don’t want to trigger a gas-buying panic in Michiana or anything, but… according to the Detroit Free Press:

Gas stations throughout Michigan are reporting they are out of fuel and in some cases are having to boost their prices well above $3 a gallon in order to conserve what little petrol they have left.

(Hat tip: Ray Wert.) Becky’s tank is already pretty much full. I filled it Sunday night, hours before landfall, and we haven’t driven much since.

UPDATE 2: The South Bend Tribune reports $3.50/gallon prices at some stations in South Bend. But “prices varied widely, with regular unleaded still selling for less than $3 a gallon at some stations.

Last night, regular unleaded was “only” $2.79 yesterday at Martin’s on SR23 and at the Speedway station across the street. I’ll have to see what it is when I get home later today.

UPDATE 3: Ray says it’s now $3.19 at Martin’s. Up 40 cents in 18 hours? Cripes!

But it could be worse (and perhaps soon will be). It’s already $3.92 to $4.00 in Detroit.

From NOLA:

The emergency generators at Charity and University hospitals in downtown New Orleans ran out of fuel and shut down at 8 a.m. today, worsening an already intolerable situation for about 350 patients and more than 1,000 doctors, nurses and evacuees who sought shelter there.

Donald Smithburg, who heads Louisiana State University’s Health Care Services Division, said he’s been told that fuel is available a few blocks from the hospitals’ downtown New Orleans campus, but that authorities have not yet figured out how to transport it through the flooded streets to the hospitals.

The damage in Mississippi, town by town. Particularly mild-blowing is the summary of the devastation in Biloxi:

Legacy Towers condos survive. . . Ryans, Red Lobster, Olive Garden washed away along U.S. 90. . . Lighthouse still standing. Biloxi-Ocean Springs Bridge gone. Bottom floor of the library and the home of Jefferson Davis home, Beauvoir destroyed. . . . Sharkshead Souvenir City gone. . . Edgewater Village strip shopping center gutted . . . Also gone: the steeple of historic Hansboro Presbyterian Church; Waters Edge II apartments; Diamondhead Yacht Club, the old neon McDonald’s sign on Pass Road . . . Massive damage in east end of city. . . almost total devastation primarily south of the railroad tracks near Lee Street, Point Cadet and Casino Row. . . Beau Rivage still stands. . . Hard Rock Casino, scheduled to open in early September, suffered 50 percent damages. The signature guitar, said to be the world’s largest, still stands. . . At least five casinos out of commission. . . St. Thomas the Apostlic Catholic Church, which sits on U.S. 90, is gone.

It strikes me that, in a way, New Orleans is to Mississippi right now as the World Trade Center was to the Pentagon on 9/11. If nothing was happening at all in New Orleans, the utter devastation in Mississippi would, by itself, make Katrina one of the most awful, destructive and deadly hurricanes in American history. Yet because what’s happening in New Orleans is of such horrifying and historic proportions — essentially, the total destruction of an entire metropolitan area, happening before our eyes — the devastation in Mississippi is, improbably, relegated to playing second fiddle in the news, just as the Pentagon attack (which would have been, by itself, the deadliest and most audacious terrorist attack in American history) played second fiddle to the World Trade Center atrocity.

From NOLA:

The normally unflappable Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri broke into tears as he broadcast a call to help for anyone who could offer food or water to officials at the parish’s emergency operations center in Marrero.

Maestri said anyone who can help with the necessities of life for workers at the center can call (504) 349-5360.

Maestri said the water situation is so dire that like many people in the parish and the area, they are trapped in the center.

In an earlier post, NOLA says Maestri “said Wednesday morning that the flooding situation in East Jefferson was worsening”:

Officials said water from the breach in the 17th Street Canal levee was flowing across I-10 at the Orleans-Jefferson parish line and flowing into East Jefferson.

Maestri said the parish was scrambling to build temporary levees at various Metairie locations to try to stop the flow.

On the West Bank, where flooding was less prevalent, Jefferson Parish officials were grappling with a different crisis: Refugees from New Orleans were streaming over the Crescent City Connection in search of food, shelter and water.

Maestri said the population at three west bank shelters was increasing by 200 people per hour. He put out a call for large food distributors that might be interested in donating food to the shelters to call the Emergency Management Center at (504) 349-5360.

Dylan Alexander e-mailed at 9:04 AM: “Superdome refugees to be moved to Houston Astrodome. Fox News reporting ten minutes ago. Buses will be used to get them there, but it was less clear how they’ll get them from the Superdome to the buses.”

UPDATE: “First by boat, then bussing,” adds Elithea Whittaker, also via e-mail (citing the WWL feed around 10 AM).

From Rashida Thomas of Northville, Michigan, via e-mail:

I have a very close friend who is a nurse at Oschner Hospital. She had to stay on duty at the Hospital during the storm. We are desperately seeking any information on the hospital’s current state. Would you happen to know anything or know how I might find out something about her, her whereabouts, and the hospital? By the way her name is Sebra Chapman. Any help or insight you can provide would be appreciated.

Hey all, Becky here.

This morning, Brendan and I got a call from a guy searching for a way back into New Orleans so that he could pick up his parents and take them outta there. So, being the subversive guestblogger, I gotta ask:

Does anyone know an open driving route to the city?

For Brendan’s sanity, I’ll say that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to go back into the city, but then again, if his parents were stuck there, he’d probably build an ornithopter to get to them.

On a marginally related note, does anyone know how the pet recovery/animal rescue is going? I can only imagine how pissed my cats would be if they were stuck in a tree without food for a few days.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: My Aunt Patty e-mails: “Evacuees can call the American Red Cross��� information line at 1-866-GET-INFO for information regarding emergency assistance and public safety information and road closures. In addition, Louisiana residents can call the Louisiana State Police at 800-469-4828 to check on roadways that are open and safe for travel in less impacted areas.” (Citing FEMA.)

Sleep finally caught up with me last night, as I conked out on the couch around 10:00 PM in the midst of posting something about how Mayor Nagin sucks. :) Many thanks to the guestbloggers for keeping things current. I’ll be depending on them during the day today, too, as I have another OCI interview this morning and then work until 5:00 PM, so updates from yours truly will be necessarily sparse.

Looking at the bigger picture, I obviously won’t be able to continue indefinitely the torrid pace of updates that I’ve been at since Friday; I’m a law student with school, a job, and a life, not a full-time blogger. Also, over the next few days I will be slowly making the transition from being an all-Katrina-all-the-time blog back to being a multi-topic blog, talking about everything from weather and space news to politics and the law, not to mention law-school life, Lord of Rings and Harry Potter nerdiness, and of course, sports. With college-football season starting on Saturday, I sort of have a built-in timetable for this transition. :)

But fear not, newfound Katrina-oriented readers. I will continue to post about the storm’s aftermath as well. It is, after all, the biggest news story around right now, and indeed one of the biggest news stories of my lifetime. I will also continue to provide a comprehensive list of links to other sites with Katrina-related information. Speaking of which, if you think I am missing any important links (or any important news), please e-mail me. The comments have grown so numerous that I simply cannot read them all, so if you post something there, I may miss it.

Anyway… here’s a good overview of the situation in New Orleans, from WWL-TV: “Crisis deepens in city.” And here are a few key tidbits from the WWL-TV blog:

7:38 A.M. - CNN report…another attempt will be made to sandbag the 17th Street Canal.

7:24 A.M. - Slidell Mayor Ben Morris: Electricity is six to 12 weeks away.

7:06 A.M. - Governor Blanco wants the Superdome evacuated within two days. …

6:50 A.M. - Sen. Landrieu: The whole parish of St. Bernard is gone. …

6:10 A.M. - (AP) — Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says the Bush administration will release oil from petroleum reserves to help refiners affected by Hurricane Katrina. …

5:55 A.M. Governor Blanco: Stopping the looting is important, but saving lives a higher priority right now. Not sure where looters think they are taking the stuff since city may soon be under water.

Also, apparently Lafayette, Louisiana is opening its schools to evacuees from other parts of the state:

11:28 P.M. - (AP) LAFAYETTE, La. — Parents who had to evacuate because of Hurricane Katrina will be able to register their children for school in Lafayette Parish starting tomorrow.

Burnell Lemoine, deputy superintendent and chief academic officer for the Lafayette Parish School System, says registration ends Thursday and parents will be contacted Friday to let them know what school their children should attend.

He says students should be in classes by Tuesday. The children will be assigned to current schools depending on where they are in homes or shelters.

Fascinating. In other news, the New Orleans Saints will become the San Antonio Saints for the time being:

The Saints will fly to San Antonio following their 8 p.m. Thursday game at the Oakland Raiders and will make it their home base for the immediate future, said director of media and public relations Greg Bensel.

Several teams and communities offered assistance, but Saints owner Tom Benson has long-standing ties to San Antonio, his second home. The team evacuated to San Antonio before Hurricane Ivan last year.

The Saints are planning to practice in San Antonio until their season-opener Sept. 11 at the Carolina Panthers.

Where they will play the home opener, against the New York Giants on Sept. 18, is uncertain. General Manager Mickey Loomis and the NFL are looking into potential sites, and that would include college stadiums.

P.S. Ray Wert notes the difference between “finding” and “looting.” Why, the difference is perfectly clear — it’s black-and-white!

P.P.S. In case anyone is wondering… I had 34,278 hits yesterday, breaking the previous day’s record of 31,139.

[NOTE: This post “bumped up” from 7:58 AM to 8:40 AM.]

Ostrich breaks free on Golden Gate Bridge. Heh.

Here’s a Katrina missing-persons board. Also, N.O. Pundit has set up a bulletin board.

Again, please e-mail me if you know of similar sites that you think I should post or add to my left sidebar. Likewise if you know of major breaking news that hasn’t been posted yet. I simply cannot keep up with all the comments, so I may miss things that are posted there.

P.S. Lots of Katrina maps.

And WBRZ is now organizing its aerial videos by region.

Specific information about Slidell here.