If I were a Jesus freak I'd cast Hurricane Katrina as God's tardy retribution for the Dec 26 2004 nuclear tsunami....(*)
Death toll in New Orleans expected to swell into thousands
By ERIKA BOLSTAD, PHIL LONG and MARTIN MERZER
Miami Herald
NEW ORLEANS - A major American city all but disintegrated Wednesday, and the expected death toll from Hurricane Katrina mushroomed into the thousands.
Bodies floated down streets. Defeated survivors waded waist-deep and ghostlike through floods. Packs of looters rampaged through the ruins and armed themselves with stolen weapons and gunfire echoed through the city.
The governor ordered New Orleans abandoned of all remaining residents by the end of the week, with bus convoys late Wednesday beginning to shuttle 25,000 storm refugees - people without homes, jobs or possessions - from the Superdome and elsewhere in the city to Houston's Astrodome.
And Mayor Ray Nagin confirmed what many knew in their hearts, but could not bring themselves to say:
``Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands,'' Nagin said when asked how many had perished - just in New Orleans - in this week's natural assault on what had been one of the nation's largest, most popular, most carefree of cities.
Joining the governor, he called for a total evacuation of the city, saying that 50,000 to 100,000 people who defied pre-storm orders to leave must now be moved.
``We have to,'' Nagin said. ``The city will not be functional for two or three months.''
One of many scenes that illustrated his assessment: At one point, firefighters stood knee-deep in floodwaters at Bourbon and Canal streets in the French Quarter as they sprayed water on a blaze.
Another: Once prosperous people found themselves slogging through mud and debris, sleeping not in their homes, not in hotels, not in shelters, but on broken chunks of Interstate 10, once the city's major artery.
``It was so awful,'' said Joan Britton, whose family joined 50 other families during a terrifying, uncomfortable night on the concrete. ``So many babies were crying.''
As she spoke, a body floated under the overpass.
Meanwhile, the scope of death and destruction in Biloxi, Gulfport and elsewhere in Mississippi and Louisiana was still unclear - but only in the full scope of its awfulness.
More than 78,000 people fidgeted in shelters.
``We're dealing with one of the worst ... disasters in the nation's history,'' President Bush said during an address to the nation. ``Right now, it seems awfully dark to those affected, and I understand that.''
He said the recovery would take years.
The Pentagon dispatched the hospital ship USNS Comfort, swift-water rescue teams, search helicopters and four ships with drinking water and emergency supplies.
The federal government contacted cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International, about the possibility of pressing some ships into service as floating refugee centers.
A 21-member team from the Coast Guard left its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., base and joined the relief effort. The team will assist with rescues and provide lighted channel markers and other navigation tools to help boaters in flooded areas.
Massive amounts of other federal aid also flowed through and to the region - and more was needed.
From Slidell, La., to Mobile, Ala., the entire Gulf Coast around and south of I-10 was a morass of fallen trees, smashed buildings, mud and hot, sweaty, hungry people.
In Slidell, at the northeast corner of Lake Pontchartrain, more than 50 people packed a gas station along I-10. They had nowhere to go, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. They waited until the station's owner started up a generator to get gasoline flowing so they could flee.
``We need help,'' said David Meaders, 36, who said he lost his trailer and everything he owned at nearby Pearlington, Miss. ``We need something, and there is nothing.''
In Pearlington, the state's Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks officers scoured the area for survivors and the dead. The small village smelled of rotting mud - and something else.
``A lot of this is death,'' said Col. Steven Adcock. ``Dead animals, wet woods and the ocean.''
Back in New Orleans, platoons of looters stripped stores of food, water and clothing, which was almost understandable under the circumstances. But they also took televisions, appliances and guns.
For the most part, they were unchallenged. On the third day after Katrina struck, National Guard troops and police officers still were too busy rescuing storm victims, but the mayor pledged to transfer 1,500 officers from search and rescue missions to old-fashioned law enforcement.
Gangs even claimed sections of the Superdome, and some prisoners had to be removed from their flooded cells and temporarily housed along a broken section of I-10, which served as high ground.
New Orleans police Superintendent Eddie Compass called the law-and-order situation ``very tenuous.''
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the 20,000 people inside the fetid Superdome had to be evacuated by Friday. Four feet of water flooded the lower level, toilets were broken or overflowing and the air conditioning hadn't worked for days.
She said virtually everyone else still within a city that once sheltered 485,000 also had to be removed.
But how to do that? Floods blocked nearly all exit routes, and many roads - including sections of I-10 - were crumbled into massive slabs of jagged concrete.
``The logistical problems are impossible,'' she said.
In Houston, workers at the Astrodome prepared to receive the evacuees and serve their needs for at least several weeks.
The 40-year-old arena, once the home of the Astros baseball team, has been used only sporadically since 2002 and is in need of repairs, said Willie Loston, executive director of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.
Emergency managers in New Orleans said water largely stopped entering the city, but only because levels inside had finally equalized with Lake Pontchartrain outside.
Depending on the city's topography, flood heights varied: Near City Hall, refugees trudged through 3 feet of water. In the city's Lower Ninth Ward along the Mississippi River, the height was numbing - up to 15 feet.
When the three broken levees finally are stabilized and repaired, the Army Corps of Engineers said, nearly a month will be needed just to drain the water from the city.
Farther east, in Biloxi and Gulfport, the search for survivors and for bodies pressed on in merciless, stifling heat.
Critical provisions - water, ice and food - still failed to materialize in most neighborhoods. But one thing no one needed - more rain - arrived in the form of thunderstorms.
Emergency management officials not only wouldn't speculate on how many died when a 30-foot wall of water swept into the Gulfport-Biloxi area, they repeatedly refused to say how many bodies had been recovered.
``Our preparation area is just overwhelmed,'' said Tommy Franklin, manager of the Riemann Funeral Home in downtown Gulfport, where the remains are being stored.
In one ghastly corner of the region, a flood unearthed and opened coffins. The stench of disaster lay heavy in the air.
Virtually nothing within three-quarters of a mile of the Gulf of Mexico was unscathed. Casinos three and four stories high - one just offshore - sat broken and ajar, nearly two blocks from the water.
Most buildings were blasted by a wall of water so violent it often left nothing but concrete pilings. Apartment houses crumbled into piles of jagged bricks, plaster and concrete.
Nearby, a dozen tractor-trailers lay scattered atop squashed cars - a graveyard for vehicles.
Residents grew restless and angry.
``We have not had any assistance down here, whatsoever,'' Don Franklin, 48, said as he stood on Main Street in Biloxi, nearly a mile from the Gulf. ``Not one case of bottled water.''
At his house, the high-water mark reached to within a foot of the living room ceiling.
(Knight Ridder correspondents Audra D.S. Burch and Gary Fineout in Gulfport, Miss., Marc Caputo in Slidell, La., Evan S. Benn in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Charles Rabin and Carol Rosenberg in Miami, Mark Washburn in Gulfport, and David Wethe in Houston contributed to this report.)
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