Some of New Orleans' 13,900 parolees and convicts released from jail on probation were among the more than 450,000 people that fled New Orleans before the hurricane or who were rescued from the deluged city after it struck, said Pam Laborde, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

"Offenders under active parole or probation supervision need to immediately report their whereabouts or current address to probation officials so we can establish a supervision plan where they are," she told reporters.

It was unclear how many probationers and parolees were unaccounted for, Laborde said, adding that those who contacted authorities would not be punished for leaving the state, even if they were not technical allowed to do so under their release conditions.

But she warned that those who did not come forward would face the full wrath of the justice system, which officials said was beginning to rise again from the soggy rubble of the city.

"If we find you, you are going to go back to jail," Laborde warned. Just because people had to evacuate, doesn't mean that they escape their responsibilities as far as supervision."

Laborde also quashed reports that prisoners either escaped from New Orleans jails or died in their cells when they were flooded after Katrina breached the city's ageing dykes on August 29.

"I can't speak to what happened prior to our arrival (after the storm), but since we got there on that Tuesday there were no major injuries, no escapees and no deaths," she said in Baton Rouge.

Some police officers said soon after Katrina hit that some prisoners may have drowned or escaped when the city was turned into a swamp and anarchy broke out.

But Laborde said that 8,200 inmates had been evacuated from jails in downtown New Orleans and in nearby Jefferson Parish and had been rehoused temporarily in state and parish jails, with some being flown to Florida to unburden crowded prisons.

Only one jail is operational in New Orleans, a temporary facility housed in the city's bus station and dubbed "Camp Greyhound" by authorities. Some 271 suspected criminals have passed through the facility since it opened on September 3, Laborde said.

Some 206 men and 47 women were detained on state felony charges -- mostly looting -- while eight men and two women were booked for more minor misdemeanours.

Another eight men were charged with serious federal charges, most of them weapons related, but one was for rape.

"The Department of Corrections' key mission remains the continuation of safe and stable correctional environments across the state," the department said in a statement.

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