The already dire situation in New Orleans has taken a turn for the worse this morning as the breach in the 17th Street Canal Levee is now 200 feet wide and slowly flooding the entire city. In short, the worst-case scenario may be occurring as flood waters completely fill the below sea-level bowl that is New Orleans, potentially turning Lake Pontchartrain and the city into one big toxic lake.
For those of you who cannot monitor developments via television, Brendan Loy has been doing an incredible job of blogging developments as they occur, so check on his site frequently for updates. Also, WWLTV in New Orleans has established this blog that provides continual updates on developments in the city. Finally, the Interdictor is also providing up-to-date eyewitness accounts of developments in New Orleans.
In addition, the Chronicle’s Eric Berger has been doing an outstanding job of analyzing Hurricane Katrina developments on a more thorough basis on his SciGuy blog. The Chronicle’s Loren Steffy has also been doing a fine job of keeping up with the financial implications of the hurricane over at his Full Disclosure blog. Finally, here is an excellent Washington Post article that summarizes the difficult situation well.
The disastrous situation in New Orleans is exhibiting how weblogs are becoming an increasingly important medium for disseminating urgent and specialized information. The Chronicle’s excellent technology writer, Dwight Silverman, pushed the local newspaper into the blogosphere, and the brilliance of his vision is now being fulfilled by the his work and that of his colleagues. Kudos to Chronicle management for embracing this important information medium.

Officials of oil and gas companies and refineries with facilities in the path of Hurricane Katrina were scurrying around yesterday somewhat helplessly attempting to evaluate the extent of the storm’s damage on key oil and natural-gas production facilities that rattled energy markets early yesterday. The bottom line is that it’s going to take at least a few days — and perhaps weeks — to assess the damage fully and determine how long those facilities will be off-line.
Oil futures surged past $70 per barrel in overnight electronic trading on Monday, but fell back during the day. Oil for October delivery settled at $67.20, up $1.07 from Friday’s price, but still below the previous record. When adjusted for inflaction, oil prices overall are still well below the high of $95.26 reached in April 1980.

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