Anarchy

More from CNN. People are dying in the streets. Thousands of people pleading for rescue, for food, for water.

Louisiana state officials are now estimating that there are thousands dead. The problem is that the destruction is so massive and widespread, and the situation on the ground is so desperate and now violent, there doesn't seem to be a way to calculate the loss of human life. Bodies are still trapped in flooded houses, attics. Others float down the streets as rescuers try to help those still clinging to life and hope.

We have never seen the likes of this on our soil, not ever.