UR TV CAST

A quarter of US domestic oil comes from Gulf oilfields, all but shut down by Katrina, while 25 per cent of all oil used in the US is refined in the region. Petrol prices ­ already at record levels ­ are likely to rise by 15 to 20 cents a gallon. As for the shattered region itself, there is but one tiny, purely semantic, consolation There cannot be another Katrina. Like Camille, Andrew, Hugo and other legendary storms of the past, her name will be retired into the Hurricane hall of fame, never to be used by America’s weather services again..

Every sign is that this will be America’s costliest natural disaster. Insured losses are estimated at anything up to $26bn (£14bn), eclipsing damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the category 5 storm which struck the Miami area in August 1992 Non-insured damage from Katrina is unknown Indirectly, the effects will be felt by every American. President George Bush, who was cutting short his five-week Texas holiday to return to Washington today to monitor the crisis, delivered a similar message: People had to wait, “Our priority is saving lives.” For the moment, his words are being heeded. But patience may not last long, in one of the poorest parts of the US, beaten down by a summer heat and humidity that the hurricane’s downpours have made even worse.

In Louisiana, the I-10 interstate, the main east-west access to New Orleans, was closed 50 miles from the city. Officials in all three states affected pleaded with evacuees not to return to their homes, to allow emergency operations to proceed. Across the region, up to 1 million people were homeless, in effect refugees in their own country Millions were without power. Michael Brown, director of FEMA, the federal government emergency relief agency, said it would be “weeks and weeks, if not months,” before an approximation of normal life could resume.