Donald Burnham watched all the news reports of Hurricane Katrina tearing through his home city, and all the while his thoughts remained on his mother.

Like other KU students from areas the hurricane ravaged on Monday, Burnham is trying to keep in contact with family and friends as they recoup from the storm’s damage and decide what to do next. Last year, 83 students from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, the three states most affected by Katrina, were enrolled at the University.

As of last night, more than 100 had been confirmed dead in Harrison County, Miss., while officials in New Orleans and other areas said only they were pushing bodies aside to rescue survivors.

Eeric Gay/The Associated Press

Evelyn Turner cries alongside the body of her common-law husband, Xavier Bowie, after he died in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bowie and Turner had decided to ride out Hurricane Katrina when they could not find a way to leave the city. Bowie, who had lung cancer, died when he ran out of oxygen Tuesday afternoon.

Burnham, New Orleans freshman, was unable to contact his mother, who did not evacuate. But at 5 a.m. Monday she sent him a picture of the backyard of their house via her cell phone. No words, just a picture.

The picture showed the yard completely filled with water and their shed “flying in mid-air,” he said.

“That’s when I really got worried,” Burnham said. “I couldn’t get in touch with her at all.”

Late Monday night he received a text message from her saying she was safe, though Burnham doesn’t know how she’ll cope without electricity or clean water for possibly a month.

Pamela Botts, assistant director of Counselling and Psychological Services, recommended that students dealing with the crisis keep in touch with family.

“Mostly, it’s important to stay focused on what you need to do here, it’s important to stay in touch with family,” Botts said.

Jeffrey Briscoe, New Orleans sophomore, spoke with his parents on Monday. They fled to Jackson, Miss., with two of his three brothers, before the hurricane struck.

They are staying in a hotel in Jackson and don’t know when they will be able to return home, he said. He had no idea when their lives would return to normal or when his younger brother would return to high school.

Briscoe said an uncle and his older brother stayed in New Orleans through the hurricane. His brother text messaged his family and was “OK and cleaning up,” he said. The family hadn’t heard from his uncle but weren’t overly concerned, he said.

About 80 percent of New Orleans was under various amounts of water as of last night. Martial law had also been declared in several Louisiana parishes, allowing the military to take over for local police forces.

Sara Edwards, a freshman from Mandeville, La., a city of 11,000 people across the bay from New Orleans, said she had been speaking regularly with her mother and sister, who fled the city. She feared, however, for friends and family who stayed behind as she watched news reports.

“I was freaking out,” she said. “I was so scared because I thought all the people I left behind were losing their houses and possibly getting hurt.”

Edwards said she didn’t receive word until yesterday that her father made it out of the city and to northern Mississippi.

Max Morris, a senior from Kenner, La., a suburb west of New Orleans, feared that his family’s vacant house was badly damaged, but was grateful the hurricane didn’t hit his home as badly as some had predicted.

Late Monday night, DeMarco Smith, New Orleans sophomore, still waited to hear from friends who were holed up inside the Louisiana Superdome as the hurricane roared overhead.

“I’ve tried texting them,” he said. “But I haven’t been able to get through.”

Burnham said he wanted to go to New Orleans to help his mother this weekend, but worried he wouldn’t be allowed into the city.

Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco ordered all survivors out of New Orleans last night as levees gave way and pumps failed. Thousands of individuals who were in shelters or trapped in homes were expected to be moved to shelters outside of the flooded areas as soon as possible.

“It was hard knowing my mom was by herself,” he said. “It was hard knowing I couldn’t be there with her.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story. Edited by Jonathan Kealing