Okay, we’re doing our best to balance the tragic with the comic (one of the reasons we extended the photo contest). Apologies for the inconsistency in tone, but it keeps us sane. So here’s the latest rundown.

• Blog transforms into first-person account of what’s happening in New Orleans. Sounds like the police infrastructure has turned into Rio Bravo. (via MeFi)
• Multiple telethons prepared to raise funds for Katrina victims.
• NOLA: Looters getting closer to heavily populated areas.
• Radio used to inform people of horrors.
• Thousands now belived drowned; martial law in effect.
• WWL blog is reporting that buses are arriving early at Astrodome, some of them renegade.
• Craig’s List New Orleans flooded with housing offers.
• Horrific reports from within the Superdome: people sleeping in urine and peeing on the floor.
• T-Mobile offers free wi-fi.
• New York Times: “Waiting for a Leader.”
• Storm Digest reminds us that typhoid and cholera are next.
• Engineers struggle to find ways of “unwater” New Orleans (via < Brendan Loy, who is doing a great job).
• Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg has started the fight about the Bush Administration’s late response.
• Maud points to this article of New Orleans literary landmarks.
• 500 complaints of gas gouging in IL.
• In Florida, thieves are posing as FPL workers and stealing cash from widows.
• New York Yankees and NFL gives $1 million to aid.
• Jack Shafer wants to know why race and class haven’t been mentioned.