Aw, Dana. Put down the tv and get just a little bit of sleep.

All of your people are safe right now, yes?

So there are a lot of things that you don't, and can't, know yet but your parents are safe and you need to try and get some sleep if you can.

I can't sleep. If I lie in bed, I just imagine the worst. At least on the computer, I can find out details of the worst.

Can't sleep. Really wish I could stop looking at news sites.

I understand. Mucho -ma.

And still more horrors:

A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north. The breach sent a churning sea of water coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.

This apparently explains why the water in NOLA was still rising this afternoon and evening. The hole in the levee is two blocks wide. The mayor says that some parts of the city are under 20 feet of water.

I can't sleep. If I lie in bed, I just imagine the worst.

Want to be distracted, helped in the search for details or just allowed to post?

I was fine all day today, sort of. I guess I had something to do, at least. I tried calling my parents tonight, but I guess the phone and power is out in Jackson.

Want to be distracted, helped in the search for details or just allowed to post?

Um, distracted, I guess. I've managed to upset myself pretty well.

I'm watching the mayor on TV from earlier tonight.

Slidell is under water. Metairie is mostly under water. There's basically no way in or out of the city. There's no potable water except in the CBD and Algiers. There's no elecricity, and it'll take at least 4-6 weeks to get it back up.

Now CNN is reporting a two-foot breach in a levee somewhere.

Now CNN is reporting a two-foot breach in a levee somewhere.

That's the two-block breach the mayor was talking about. By the 17th St Canal.

And I'm hearing conflicting reports on the Twin Spans. One transportation department guy said that the damage was severe but fixable and that it looks like a stairstep all the way up. The mayor is talking like it's gone.

Peak storm surge at Biloxi is now being reported as reaching 33 feet, which would equal or exceed Camille's surge.

Sections of the I-10 twin bridges linking St. Tammany and Orleans parishes over Lake Pontchartrain have been “severely damaged’’ in both directions, some knocked out, Louisiana highway officials said.