From Saturday's Front Page article in the Baltimore Sun

No precise hurricane casualty count has been made, but with corpses floating in fetid New Orleans flood waters, Louisiana state officials estimated the death toll in their state would be in the thousands. In Mississippi, the death toll was put unofficially at more than 180.

The disaster in New Orleans has overshadowed devastation in areas to the south and east in Louisiana.

Mike Bayham, a former councilman in St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, said the death toll in that area - largely cut off from media coverage - could exceed 1,000.


'Bodies everywhere'
"It's a catastrophe. We still have bodies floating everywhere," said Bayham, who evacuated to Phoenix, Ariz.

According to Bayham, much of the parish of 72,000 people is covered by water, and entire towns - Delacroix, Shell Beach, Hopedale and Yscloski - are gone. "They've ceased to exist," he said.

As floodwater grew increasingly toxic inside the city, the storm's impact on the environment outside New Orleans was becoming more evident.

The Coast Guard reported that two huge oil tanks, each holding up to 80,000 gallons, had ruptured during the storm and were leaking into the Mississippi River.

In all, state and federal officials reported 153 incidents linked to the storm that were potentially harmful to the environment: toppled oil drilling platforms, diesel fuel leaking from wrecked ships, overturned rail cars full of toxic chemicals.

Environmental technicians could not reach the affected areas to assess the damage or start cleaning things up, said Jean Kelly, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of the Environment.