[Shermy]

"At the hour, blacks were drowning in New Orleans. "

Nope. Day later with the levee breaches.

[KillBill]

There were two levee breaches. There was a breach in the 9th Ward during the hurricane. There was another breach on the 17th Street/Industrial Canal late Monday night that was reported first at 2:30AM on CNN.

[kingu]

Nope. Day later with the levee breaches.

Well, partially correct. A largish section of the western reaches of the city was under water from the storm surge that came up the Mississippi, from what I understand. The debris flows shown on the survey photos on NOAA's website backs that up.

IIRC, Mayor Nagin acknowledged that flooding on Monday, but like many, he was extremely relieved that the city didn't suffer worst problems and he expressed confidence that the pumps would drain that flooding soon.