Mayor Ray Nagin halted the return of residents to New Orleans on Monday, citing the threat from the strengthening Tropical Storm Rita. The move came as state and federal officials -- including President Bush -- raised concerns that Nagin's plan to return evacuees to the devastated city was coming too soon. Nagin planned for about 180,000 people to return within the week.
Traffic heading into New Orleans was backed up Monday along Interstate 10.
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A disturbing view from inside FEMA 
A gas refinery building in St. Bernard, Louisiana.
Reba Burke drinks with friends at Patout's Restaurant in the French Quarter Friday.
Even after Michael Brown's departure as head of FEMA, criticism of the government's response to the disaster keeps rising like the unstoppable floodwaters. It threatens to swamp other officials involved in the recovery effort, at every level of government -- federal, state and local.
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Hurricane victims in New Orleans say police blocked them from crossing a bridge to Gretna.
After Hurricane Katrina put most of New Orleans under water and filled two rapidly deteriorating shelters with thousands, Mayor Ray Nagin urged others still in the city to flee over a Mississippi River bridge to dry ground. But some evacuees said they were blocked by police with guns drawn.
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Louisiana Army National Guard Spl. William Lanoux operates a bulldozer as he clears the road of a house that was washed off its foundation in the 9th Ward of New Orleans on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005. The 9th Ward was one of the most heavily flooded portions of the city, and parts of it are now drained. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)
Michael Brown resigned under a hail storm of criticism over federal response to Hurricane Katrina and President Bush today claimed responsibility for any federal failures. But there is plenty more blame that will hit officials at all levels of government and more could lose their jobs.
New Orleans neighborhoods remain flooded two weeks after the hurricane hit.
President Bush talks with Helen DeDeaux, left, 94, and her son Lee DeDeaux during a visit to a food distribution center in Gulfort, Miss., on Monday.
Susan Walsh / AP
White and black Americans view Hurricane Katrina's aftermath in starkly different ways, with more blacks viewing race as a factor in problems with the federal response, according to a newly released CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. More blacks than whites said they were angry about the government's response to Katrina, 76 percent to 60 percent, and President Bush is one target of their ire.
The sun sets Monday over a virtually deserted New Orleans two weeks after it was flooded.
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FEMA director Mike Brown
Bush and other officials tour New Orleans today.
Families uprooted by Katrina looking for a place to live in state capital, sending prices surging.
A Garden District home is consumed by flames Tuesday.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, Sunday was marked by signs that hopelessness was beginning to lift in this shattered city. While the final toll from the disaster remains unknown, there were indications New Orleans had begun to turn a corner.
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President Bush arrives aboard the USS Iwo Jima Sunday and will view relief efforts on Monday.
A crew motors down Peoples Avenue in New Orleans to search for survivors and bodies.
A'Mahd Magee, center, 7 months old, is greeted by his father, Robert Magee, left, holding daughter, Ashanta Magee, left as the child's mother, Stacy Nolan, right, reaches out to A'Mahd, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005, in Addison, Texas. A'Mahd arrived in Texas by private plane to be reunited with his family.
Eric Gay / AP
Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans on Aug. 30. Bowie, who had lung cancer, died when he ran out of oxygen the day after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
A tugboat retrieves oil barges and contains oil leaks in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.
An equipment operator picks up trash outside the New Orleans convention center.
Wendell Pruitt delivers mail in a storm-wrecked neighborhood in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Floodwaters surround a sign that normally welcomes tourists to New Orleans.
Red Cross volunteers work as Katrina survivors rest on cots at the Houston Astrodome.
A U.S. Navy Seabee discards spoiled goods from the Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport Commissary Sept. 4, 2005. Katrina's growing costs are likely to approach $200 billion in the next couple of weeks.
Paul Williams / AP
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen will head up on-site Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
Biloxi has weathered many a storm during its 300-year history, and our people have proven their resiliency time and again. We’ll meet this unprecedented natural disaster with an unprecedented response. We’ll overcome this setback, and we’ll be defined not so much by the devastation of this storm, but how we rebuilt our community.
It’s going to be a long process, but Biloxi is on the way back.
God bless you, God bless Biloxi, and God bless America.
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• Close-up: The Levees
MSNBC.com takes an exclusive look at the failure of the New Orleans levee system.
Lee Celano / Reuters
Holdouts in New Orleans, like this resident of the Bywater neighborhood, have been warned to leave.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Residents and rescue workers tackle the tough tasks of survival and recovery.
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Debbie Este looks on as her daughters, Amanda, 13, and Tiffany, 16, check e-mail from friends.
Embattled FEMA Director Michael Brown is being sent back to Washington and a new leader has been picked to handle on-site Hurricane Katrina relief operations, a senior administration official tells CNN. The news came as officials in New Orleans reported that an initial sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected.
Sgt. Cindy Lefore of the Oregon National Guard tries to talk a resident into leaving.
Police Chief Eddie Compass said officers will use "the minimal amount of force" in evacuations.
t's dark. It's shirt-soaking hot in the swamp that is now New Orleans. And the only word to describe the heavy odor of death and bacteria is "indescribable." But officials believe thousands of residents remain and some may have to be forced to evacuate the city full of health dangers.
Coast Guardsman Daniel Hoffmeier, right, and a police officer help load children into one of the helicopters transporting survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, from the Civic Center to the airport Saturday.
FBI: Hurricane relief Internet scams proliferate
Eric Gay / AP
Searchers comb flood-ravaged New Orleans looking for residents who have been unable or unwilling to evacuate.
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Howard Gillett, 21, stands inside his New Orleans home Thursday, one of many holdouts refusing to leave the city.
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
A fire burns near downtown New Orleans September 6, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Public officials are struggling to deal with routine civic matters such as house fires in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
A boat lies stranded a few blocks from the waterfront amid the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, 31 August, 2005, in Biloxi, Mississippi.
A lone women sits in the middle of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, 31 August 2005, in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With most of New Orleans submerged and thousands of people trapped by waters strewn with bodies, authorities also fought an outbreak of plundering by locals taking away food, appliances, jewels, clothes and even guns.
Firefighters arrive at a store on fire on Canal Street August 31, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Devastation is widespread throughout the city with water approximately 12 feet high in some areas. Hundreds are feared dead and thousands were left homeless in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida by the storm.
President Bush greets victims of Hurricane Katrina on Monday in Poplarville, Miss.
Lawrence Jackson / AP
Garron Lenaz recovers an American flag from the rubble in front of his home in Gulfport, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Aug. 29, 2005. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Jordan Hale, front, pulls kids in a canoe through a flooded mobile home park in Florida City, Fla., Aug. 26, 2005. Hurricane Katrina flooded streets, darkened homes and felled trees as it plowed across South Florida before emerging over the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: AP)
Alison Dean carries what she can from her home Waveland, Miss., after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. (AP)
Members of Indiana's Madison County Sheriff's Dept. SWAT team patrol the streets of New Orleans on Wednesday.
Gruesome discovery in St. Bernard Parish nursing home hit hard by floodwaters
America Romero, 89, and her son, Andres Romero, rest on cots at the Wake County Hurricane Relief Center on Tuesday. The Romeros were rescued by boat from floodwaters in their home in New Orleans and flown to Raleigh, along with 385 other hurricane victims.
