[link]

A preliminary map of the damage.

Okay, thanks. I just found the live coverage. They're saying the water levels are still rising in the Metro NOLA area.

Yeah. The anchors on WWL are doing very well, but they're obviously upset.

Now it looks like the water is gunning for the French Quarter, right down Canal St. They thought it would have started to abate by now. There are several fires too, and emergency crews can't get to them. Everything east of the Intercoastal canal, from the 9th Ward down is under like 10 feet of water.

Dana, my thoughts are with you.

In completely shallow and hopefully distracting news, Apple is apparently partnering with Motorola to create an iPod cellphone.

The development marks a melding of two of the digital era's most popular devices, the cellphone and the iPod, which has become largely synonymous with the concept of downloading songs from the Internet or transferring them from compact discs.

Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said he had been told by an industry executive that the new phone, to be made by Motorola, would be marketed by Cingular Wireless. Mr. Entner said it would include iTunes software, which helps power the iPod.

The software will allow people to transfer songs from a personal computer to the mobile phone, then listen to the songs, presumably through headphones. "It's a deluxe music player now on your cellphone," he said of the device.

I feel sorry for New Orleans. It was first like, "Whew, we dodged the bullet" , but it turns out there was a second one.

The breach in the levee on Lake Ponchatrain is now 200 feet wide, and the feds and military are trying to get huge sandbags airlifted in.

Unfortunately, they're expecting that the flooding will continue until the lake and city find their level.

Press conference:

• 700 people rescued during the night.
• All available boats are engaged in search and rescue.
• "tragedy of great proportions, greater than we've seen in our lifetimes"
• "We have no counts, but we know that many lives have been lost."

Dana, which area is your family's home in?

The NOLA news is just terrible.

And the idea that this is just the beginning of the most active part of hurricane season. . . mind-blowing.