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Sept. 23: Beleaguered New Orleans fears heavy rains from Hurricane Rita will overwhelm its fragile levee system. NBC's Mark Mullen reports.

NEW ORLEANS - Dozens of New Orleans blocks were underwater after rain poured over a patched levee in the form of a waterfall at least 30 feet wide, confirming fears that the city's weakened levees would not be able to handle the additional rainfall.

Water was waist deep and rising fast on the street that runs next to the canal.

"We have discovered an overtopping on the industrial canal," Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Mitch Frazier told local radio.

The Army Corps had repaired the section after Hurricane Katrina flooded the Lower Ninth Ward section of the city.

“Our worst fears came true,” a National Guard official said. “The levee will breach if we keep on the path we are on right now.”

As many as 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana, many of them already displaced by Hurricane Katrina, were told to evacuate and many jammed roads north to escape.

Glynn Stevenson, who swam out of his New Orleans house with belongings taped to his body, had just gotten settled into a trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency when the call came for him to uproot again.

“It’s nothing to get mad about,” he said. “Just keep a cool attitude and help your brothers.”

Grim advice from the governor
As for those who refuse to leave, Gov. Kathleen Blanco advised: “Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink.”

The forecast called for up to 5 inches of rain in New Orleans, spread over Friday and Saturday. That should not put a strain on the city’s pumping system, Len Buckland, of the National Weather Service in Slidell, said Friday. A steady 20 mph wind, with gusts to 35 mph, was blowing.

Rita was headed for a Texas landfall but the massive storm threatened southwestern Louisiana as well, with tropical storm-force winds expected by noon and hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or higher by early Saturday. Flash floods were possible as 10 to 15 inches of rain was forecast.

Workers were out overnight monitoring the enormous sandbags and rocks that were dropped into the broken levee and canal walls after Hurricane Katrina. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Mitch Frazier said Friday that crews saw some water seeping through the structures, but nothing beyond what was expected.

“We’re waiting and watching carefully,” he said.

The latest on Hurricane Rita

Pumps expected to work in New Orleans
Some flooding was expected in low-lying areas, but Frazier said temporary pumps should allow them to get rain water out of the city.

The corps also installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city’s canals to protect against storm surges.

The forecast brought renewed urgency to efforts to shore up levees with sandbags and bring in more portable pumps. The corps also installed 60-foot sections of metal across some of the city’s canals to protect against storm surges.

“Up until Rita, everyone was pretty upbeat,” New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said during a blustery outdoor news conference amid intermittent rain. “Now that Rita has come into the picture, it’s been difficult.”

Foot of water in areas previously dried
National Guard and medical units were put on standby in the city. Helicopters were being positioned, and search-and-rescue boats from the state wildlife department were staged on high ground on the edge of Rita’s projected path. Blanco said she also asked for 15,000 more federal troops.

“We’ve got buses running continuously to get residents out. We’re trying to learn from other areas, not to repeat their mistake,” said Cindy Murphy, a manager at the police bureau in Lake Charles.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen said three days worth of supplies, including food and water, for 500,000 people are ready and waiting around Louisiana, if needed after Rita.

Hospitals around the state were shutting down, too. Jimmy Guidry, Louisiana’s state health officer, said patients from hospitals in Lake Charles and Cameron were being evacuated, some north to Alexandria, La., and others to hospitals as far away as Oklahoma.

Katrina’s death toll in Louisiana rose to 832 on Thursday, pushing the body count to at least 1,069 across the Gulf Coast. But workers under contract to collect bodies were taken off the streets of New Orleans because of the approaching storm.

A mandatory evacuation order was in effect for homes on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, and police said people in the city’s Algiers section on the other side of the river would be wise to get out, too. But thousands stayed put.

“I’m sticking it out,” said Florida Richardson, who sat on her front porch in Algiers, holding her grandson on her lap. “This house is 85 years old. It’s seen a lot of tornadoes and a lot of hurricanes. You can’t run from the power of God.”

A traffic jam of evacuees extended from Houston and other Texas cities well into Louisiana, with Interstate 10 congested across southern Louisiana.

Traffic jams, gas shortages
Janell LeDoux and her husband spent six hours on the freeway and covered just 80 miles from their home near Lake Charles east to Lafayette. And they were only halfway to her sister’s house in eastern Louisiana.

“I just hope we have something left to go home to. Not like in New Orleans,” she said. Four gas stations in Lafayette had run dry. A fifth station had only premium.

Billy Landry, a marina manager in Cypremort Point, wasn’t going to stay for Rita. He planned to haul himself and thousands of soft-shell crabs to safety.

“Since Katrina, everybody seems a little nervous. They don’t want to get pulled from rooftops,” he said.