• FEMA directed donations to Pat Robertson’s faith-based charity; then tried to hide this after being exposed by Ken Layne.
• Police Chief Eddie Cross: “We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten. Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.”
• WWL blog: Astrodome is now full. 23,000 people estimated to arrive in Houston. Numerous reports of New Orleans police turning in their badges.
• Another report from the Superdome: Reports of lawlesness, disorganization, unbearable stench, long lines, enough to make a new Mel Gibson movie: Mad Max: Beyond Superdome.
• Blanco gets into pissing fight with Dennis Hastert. Hastert’s comments can be found here.
• Local officials incensed: “Some people there have not eaten or drunk water for three or four days, which is inexcusable.”
• More from CNN: No word on where the people not let into the Astrdome will go. One resident pleading for someone with a bullhorn to talk with these people to come in before the National Guard.
• It’s a questionable source, given that weapons were checked upon entry, but British students are saying that inside the Superdome, there were guns, knives, crack cocaine use, threats of violence, racial abuse, and the rape of a seven year old girl in the bathroom.
• First-hand reports from Mongo: “Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint….There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area — Saulet Condos — once they tried to get cars from there… well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed.” These folks are reporting news until the generators go down. Incredible.
• Pictures being posted from the streets of New Orleans: including the first water dropoff in days.
• Salon: “On cable news, our normally buttoned-down blow-dried correspondents, almost all of them white, are cracking under the strain of bearing witness to the suffering and even death of the people who weren’t looting, who did the right thing and headed to the Superdome, only to find a worse hell awaited them. “
• More reports from inside the Superdome from a more legit source: It’s being run like a concentration camp and two children have been raped. Confirmation of seven year old girl being raped as well as eight year old boy. Indeterminate others raped.
• Tourists fleeced of money, told to wait for buses that never arrived. “The tourists here are an afterthought.”
• Anderson Cooper tears Landrieu a new one: “Senator, I’m sorry… for the last four days, I have been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other.” (Transcript ) (Video link)
• Bush says, “I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the levees.” He was wrong. Mr. Bill did back in 2004.

Troubling news from Caitlin Kiernan: It seems she’s been unable to get in touch with Ms. Brite in Mississippi. Jesus, I hope she’s okay.

[UPDATE: Poppy’s okay and has has just posted at her blog.]

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.

• Katrina Checkin: A place to connect people affected by Hurricane Katrina to their loved ones.
• While Bush continues to remain silent, Texas Governor Rick Perry pledges to open up the Astrodome, with evacuees arriving within the next 24 hours.
• Also from WWL blog, flights to New Orleans International could resume in two months.
• NOLA: Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Walter Maestri broke into tears, begging for necessities of life to be brought to workers. The phone number is 504-349-5360.
• No dignity for the dead.
• A list of what’s now gone from the Mississippi Coast. (via Storm Digest)
• Multiple Katrina maps.
• NOLA: Looters trying to break into children’s hospital.
• Paul at Wizbang, who is down to four pairs of underwear, is telling everyone to chill out.

The Times-Picayune must be commended for their remarkable journalism under the circumstances. Remarkable photos, first-hand accounts and solid information to draw conclusions from. These folks are still putting out a newspaper despite having to capitulate their building and despite a paper edition precluded by the rising waters. In today’s edition, there are the following details:

• Terry Ebert, director of New Orleans Homeland Security: “Truth to tell, we’re not too far from filling in the bowl.”
• The waters are rising at about 3 inches per hour.
• There are apparently gangs of armed men moving around the city, having obtained their weapons stock from a brand new Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District.
• The silver lining of a slow surge is that the death toll is considerably lesser than what might have happened, had the eye passed directly over New Orleans.
• Plans are in place to stop the flooding through 800 tons of concrete. There are about 108 15,000 pound concrete barriers that the Army Corps of Engineers hopes to drop into place by air.