A spillage of thousands of LEGO bricks forced officers in the US state of West Virginia to shut down a highway in Harrison County, local station WDTV reported.

The pace of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina has slowed, leaving some Gulf Coast areas with less than half the people they had before the storm.

Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana’s governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city.

As dawn broke over the ravaged Gulf of Mexico coastline today, rescuers in boats and helicopters furiously searched for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, with fears the death toll could reach 80.

Announcing itself with shrieking, 145-mph winds, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just outside New Orleans yesterday, submerging entire neighbourhoods, swamping Mississippi’s beachfront casinos and killing at least 55 people.