Gulf Coast Slammed By Katrina

As dawn rises over the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina's eyewall is coming onshore in the Mississippi delta region. The hurricane's strength has dropped a bit, to a strong class 4 storm (145+ mph), which is still plenty strong enough to swamp New Orleans or anything else in its path.

The storm has taken a slight eastern track so that New Orleans may be spared the worst of the wind damage, but it's lost power and that could spell trouble for the pumps that keep the city free of water. The Mississippi River water levels are rising swiftly as the water surges into the river from feeder streams and runoff from urban areas. This means that the delta region and New Orleans will feel the effects well after the storm has passed as the river may reach flood stage and remain there for quite some time.

The worst hit areas now appear to be between New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi and stretching over to Mobile, Alabama. The entire coastline in that stretch is going to see extreme conditions for the next several hours as the storm continues to come ashore.

UPDATE:
Numerous updates will follow throughout the day, but for some idea of what to expect at the Superdome, consider the what Paul from Wizbang wrote. It isn't pretty, especially if the expected storm surge tears through the city. We're talking a nasty chemical cocktail of raw sewage, petrochemicals, and every sort of chemical imaginable that households store in their homes.

UPDATE II:
Rusty at The Jawa Report is reporting that the Superdome may have serious leaks in the roof and that a roof panel may have failed, letting in more rain. People are being moved off the field and into the stands. As CNN reports:

New Orleans, braced for a catastrophic direct hit from the powerful Category 4 storm, hunkered nearly 10,000 people in its mammoth Superdome, but Ed Reams of CNN affiliate WDSU reported that the structure has begun leaking as the winds damaged the roof letting daylight and rainwater in the darkened arena.

"I can see daylight straight up from inside the Superdome," Reams reported.

National Guard troops moved people to the other side of the dome. Others were moving beneath the concrete-reinforced terrace level.

UPDATE III:
WDSU, a local news station in New Orleans has a running blog of hurricane information. This is an excellent source of information on a minute to minute basis.

UPDATE IV:
Pundit Guy has a comprehensive roundup of links and news on the hurricane.