Authorities Struggle to Evacuate Survivors

The storm's main impact has been as follows:

* Dead - At least 110 people died in Mississippi, which was struck by a 30-foot (10-metre) storm surge, but local officials said the toll could be in the hundreds. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana told reporters she had heard at least 50 to 100 people were dead in New Orleans.

* Flooding - Attempts to plug a 200-foot (60-metre) gap in the New Orleans levee system with 3,000-pound (1,360-kg) sandbags dropped from military helicopters failed, but officials said they would keep trying. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to try to fill the breach with giant 3,000-pound (1,360-kg) sandbags.

* Blackouts - Katrina knocked out electricity to about 2.3 million customers, or nearly 5 million people, in four states, utility companies said. Restoring power could take weeks, they warned.

* Oil Production - Some 91 percent of U.S. oil production and 83 percent of natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remained shut down. U.S. crude-oil prices eased below $70 per barrel, but analysts said they expected retail gasoline prices to vault well over $3 a gallon in most parts of the country as early as this weekend.