Heavy rainfall from Hurricane Rita caused water to pour past a patched levee and into the low-lying Ninth Ward of New Orleans according to local officials.
'Our worst fears came true,' said Major Barry Guidry of the Georgia National Guard. 'We have three significant breeches in the levy and the water is rising rapidly,' he said. 'At daybreak I found substantial breaks and they've grown larger.'
Much of the Ninth Ward is reported flooded as a dike that had been used to patch the levee holding the waters back failed to hold the water back. Major Guidry said water was rising at the rate of three inches per minute in some areas.
City officials knew the levees were a danger but said they did not believe anybody had stayed behind in the Ninth Ward under these conditions.
'I wouldn't imagine there's one person down there,' Sally Forman, an aide to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, told reporters.
While the New Orleans area was expecting between three and five inches of rain from Hurricane Rita, the biggest fear was the storm surge. It is expected to be four feet above high tide which could do serious additional damage to the city.
