State officials are putting together a plan to evacuate some 5000 prisoners.

At one jail, rioting inmates had taken hostage a guard, his wife and their four children, who had sought shelter inside the prison.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/fears-hurricane-toll-could-be-in-hundreds/2005/08/31/1125302601143.html

Inmates at a prison in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans have rioted, attempted to escape and are now holding hostages, a prison commissioner told ABC News affiliate WBRZ in Baton Rouge, La.

Orleans Parish Prison Commissioner Oliver Thomas reported the incident to WBRZ.

A deputy at Orleans Parish Prison, his wife and their four children have been taken hostage by rioting prisoners after riding out Hurricane Katrina inside the jail building, according to WBRZ.

Officials are expected to hold a press conference regarding the riots at 9 p.m. ET.

A woman interviewed by WBRZ said her son, a deputy at the prison whose family is among the hostages, told her that many of the prisoners have fashioned homemade weapons. Her son had brought his family there hoping they would be safe during the storm.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=nation_world&id=3398521

The U.S. Public Health Service said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/