Officials want everyone still left in New Orleans, Louisiana, to leave for now. The (39) ________ of New Orleans says thousands may be dead. (40) ________ Katrina also caused death and (41) ________ in parts of Mississippi and Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico. Federal officials reported Friday that more than one million five hundred thousand homes and businesses (42) ________ without electric power.

　　New Orleans is famous for its wild Mardi Gras (43) ________ and night life in the French Quarter. (44) ________________________. New Orleans has depended on levees, dams made of earth, to control floods from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.

　　Katrina struck on Monday. New Orleans avoided a direct hit. But two of the levees failed the next day. Most of the city was flooded. Helicopters dropped huge sandbags to fill the breaks. (45) ________________________.

　　America faces one of the worst natural events in its history. President Bush says the recovery will take years. (46) ________________________. The Bush administration is expected to ask for more in the weeks to come.