Wearing a back brace, Lucrecia Sturgeon walked for six hours Tuesday from her home in uptown New Orleans trying to reach the Superdome.
"I thought we were safe. I thought the worst had passed," said Sturgeon, 40, who had broken her back before Katrina struck. But "we woke up this morning and the water was rising every 15 minutes."
On Tuesday, the number of people at the Superdome swelled from the 10,000 that sought refuge before Katrina to as many as 20,000 as people were rescued or forced to flee a new round of flooding.
"It's better than sleeping with the mosquitoes and the bugs," said Carolyn Clark, 49, who walked five hours trying to reach the Superdome. "I'll take anything to get there."
But as they neared the stadium, still sloshing through knee-high water, the women were told to turn back. The National Guard was not letting anyone else into the Superdome. They were told to go to a nearby bridge to be picked up and taken elsewhere.
At the Superdome, National Guard troops with automatic rifles flanked the entrance. Those who left were told they wouldn't be let back in.
Thousands of people stood and sat in the plaza area just outside the Superdome. Inside, thousands more lined the concourses, lying on cardboard. Only the sick and people with special needs had cots.
Further inside the stadium most of the seats were empty, but some people slumped in them, sleeping or staring into the distance. Children ran around on the football field.
Rain leaked through three gaping holes left by Katrina.
Christopher Keife, 39, said evacuees received two MREs (short for Meals-Ready-to-Eat) a day - one in the morning, one at night - and a half liter of water each time. The water wasn't enough, he said, but people remained mostly calm.
Sam Ramirez, 58, however, said he encountered some sporadic fistfights.
The nastiest part: every toilet was clogged and there was no toilet paper, sparking fears of disease.
"I'm afraid of getting sick," Keife said. He slept outside in the plaza Monday night. With little air circulating inside, conditions have grown worse.
Rumors flew through the tense crowd, one about a man jumping to his death from a terrace. Officials were unable to confirm it.
Reporters were asked over and over: Do you know anything about my neighborhood?
Bryan Sataw, 35, a professional racquetball player from Baton Rouge, was in town for a tournament when Katrina struck. He ended up in the Superdome and tried to remain optimistic.
"They're doing all they can," he said. "Nobody saw this coming." Shirley Marrero, 62, arrived at the Superdome on a bus Sunday. The lines for food and water were taking two hours, she said. But Marrero, a diabetic, said she was eating anything, even if it was bad for her.
"It's unreal," she said.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Multimedia: Continuing fallout