New Orleans, the almost sunken city under the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, began a total evacuation on Wednesday, US media reported.

City Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the entire city would be empty for months as officials began the long task of pumping out floodwaters and assessing the damage caused by one of the worst natural disasters in American history, according to the reports of Chicago Tribune.

"The city will not be functional for two or three months," the mayor said.

There are many dead bodies floating in the deep waters, Mayor Ray Nagin voiced his fear that the death toll will be "minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

The famous southern metropolitan, where over 480,000 lived before the hurricane, will not be back to normal in several months, said Nagin.

He estimated there are still 50,000 to 100,000 people remained in New Orleans as the majority of the residents have been evacuated before the hurricane came.

The evacuation will be conducted with the assistance of the US military, at the pace of 14,000 to 15,000 people each day, said Nagin.

New Orleans was spared from the direct hit of Hurricane Katrina,which plowed into US Gulf Coast Monday, but most areas of the below-sea-level city was submerged by waters flowing down from nearby lakes through damaged levees.

Source: Xinhua/agencies