Iconic locations in New Orleans damaged by Katrina

In New Orleans, winding streets where revelers meandered are now flooded with murky water. Some businesses and landmarks are submerged or damaged; others escaped the water but were ravaged by looters.

Rescue workers are combing the waters in search of survivors, but a different kind of reckoning is also becoming clear. New Orleans is one of the most iconic cities in America, and some of the places and pieces that make it unique could be lost or looted.

Here is a list of famous spots in the city, and how they are faring, though the full extent of the damage won't be known for some time:

The French Quarter: This historic district is full of wrought-iron balconies and colonial architecture, but was also a playground for adults who could roam the streets with cocktails and listen to jazz and, during Mardi Gras, grab for bead. The area escaped much of the flooding.

Bourbon Street: A hedonistic strip in the Quarter bursting with bars like Pat O'Brien's and Jean Laffite's Blacksmith Shop. The latter, a piano bar, was supposedly the in-town headquarters of pirate Jean Laffite, who raided American, British and Spanish ships in the early 1800s. The area escaped flooding but remains closed.

U.S. Mint building: The building housed Confederate soldiers during the Civil War and produced money for the federal government until 1909. It later became home to jazz and Mardi Gras exhibits and the streetcar immortalized in Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire." The mint is still standing.

Preservation Hall: A famed New Orleans jazz club located in a building originally built as a private residence in 1750. Its fate is unknown; it is in the middle of the Quarter, and should be unaffected unless looters have trashed it.

Anne Rice's home: Tourists and fans of the "Vampire Chronicles" books would visit the Garden District home of author Anne Rice. She has also helped create several "haunted tours" of the city. The area was battered by high winds which knocked down trees.

St. Louis Cathedral: Located in Jackson Square and consecrated in 1794, it was said to be the oldest continuously active cathedral in the country. It is still standing.

St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District: The St. Charles Streetcar ran down the historic street, and the area was shaded by oak trees. The Garden District was named for the mansions and sprawling gardens, but Victorian homes later built have become a well-known part of the neighborhood. Much wind damage; many of the trees were splintered.

Little is known about the fate of other landmarks in the flood area, including St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, one of the large cemeteries known as "cities of the dead," with narrow paths, rusty iron work and tombs built aboveground because the water table was so high caskets would occasionally float away if buried underground.

; Mid-City Lanes Rock 'N Bowl Nightclub, a bar near Xavier University which has bowling lanes, live Cajun, blues and jazz music plus a full bowling alley and dancing; and Maple Leaf Bar, a smallish place uptown on Oak Street with a hammered-on tin ceiling, an institution for local music.