CNN reports the mobilization of U.S. Navy ships to assist in the recovery effort. The USS Bataan was allocated a couple of days ago.

Several other ships, including a rescue and salvage vessel and the USS Iwo Jima, another amphibious assault ship, are on their way from Norfolk, Virginia, the Navy said.

The USNS Comfort, a floating hospital based in Baltimore, Maryland, will depart in coming days. A medical crew from Bethesda Naval Hospital will staff the ship. It has full hospital capabilities, including operating rooms and hundreds of beds.

CNN reports on-air that the carrier USS John F. Kennedy may also be added to the relief effort.

Children's Hospital in New Orleans was reported to be under siege:

Late Tuesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco's spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said the facility in the city's north end was being targeted, and people in the hospital were in danger.

The Louisiana Superdome, always referred to as a "shelter of last resort." must be evacuated as conditions worsen there.

The governor has said she wants the dome empty in two days and a spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness says it'll happen. But Lieutenant Kevin Cowan (KOW'-uhn) declined to disclose specific plans. He says the dome really is more of a shelter of last resort and was never intended as a primary evacuation location.

Reports indicate as many as 30,000 to 60,000 refugees are in and around the immediate Superdome area. The relocation effort will be massive. Officials are still considering where to move the refugees.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was considering putting people on cruise ships, in tent cities, mobile home parks, and so-called floating dormitories - boats the agency uses to house its own employees.

Update: Fox News reports that the Superdome refugees will be relocated to Houston's Astrodome.

The New Orleans levee system has suffered at least three breaches and water continues to pour in to the city of 500,000 people. Contrary to prior reports, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not suspended efforts to seal the largest breach, in the 17th Street Levee, with 3000-pound sand bags dropped from helecopters.

It isn't an exaggeration to say that everything depends on closing the levee breaches. Most of New Orleans is below the natural water level of Lake Ponchatrain, so it will not go down by itself. The water will need to be pumped out, and they won't be able to start that until the levees are repaired.

Christian Science Monitor reports "good news" about an Iraqi Army unit:

The 2/2 is hardly like an American battalion. Its troops conduct patrols in unarmored pickup trucks, and the chain of command is still too top-heavy, in the American view.

However, an Iraqi formation can fight the insurgents in an efficient manner, Theya says. "We have a dialogue with people. If I find an explosive device, we'll close the road, and also close all the shops along it," he says. "So if people work with us, they help themselves."

Similar tactics by US troops tend to feed local hostility. Iraqi soldiers are inherently less provocative, Theya says, citing cultural affinities among all Arab Iraqis, whether Sunni or Shiite.

This is the progress that the anti-war people want to stop.

Jefferson Parish in Louisiana is under martial law.

Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on CBS that it would be “quite a while” before evacuees can return. In some places, “it will be weeks at least before people can get back.”

The city “is going to be incredibly dangerous” due to structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in homes, Brown said.

Flood waters are still rising in New Orleans. There are reports that the 17th Street levee in New Orleans has a "two-block wide break." Things appear to be deteriorating rapidly in New Orleans. The early assertions that the city had "dodged a bullet" appear to be premature.

Prayers and donations to the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, or other reputable charitable organizations are the rule of the day. Give blood if you can. There will be no Morning Whip today...frankly, the developing Katrina disaster is the only story worth reporting today.

Unable to find his owner, the black labrador decided to avoid a long walk home by nipping aboard the train.

He got out at the right stop, Insch, 12 minutes along the line, to the bemusement of signalman Derek Hope.

"There was a train conductor standing with Archie on the platform saying he had got on at Inverurie but didn't have a ticket," Hope said.

Red hair, red skin?

Duke University researchers on Sunday reported the first direct evidence that differences in melanin, the skin pigment that darkens with sun exposure to provide either a tan or freckles, may be a culprit. It turns out that redheads' melanin is more vulnerable to a type of DNA-damaging stress from the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Here, kitty, kitty!

Urban wildlife biologists are fielding more calls than usual this summer about bobcats, say Debra Burns and Wendy Sangster, who handle critter inquiries for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Some people want to report them, while others are worried about safety.

But danger is minimal.

CNN story reports an al Qaida manual--it has the usual Islamofascist rhetoric:

The e-book includes numerous sections totaling dozens of pages, covering such topics as how the Quran justifies beheadings and why democracy is wrong.

Via Little Green Footballs