Despair grips New Orleans
From staff and wire reports
As a tired, hungry and frustrated crowd chanted "Help us! Help us! Help us!'' in front of the New Orleans Convention Center this morning, someone pulled back a filthy blanket to reveal a gray-haired man slumped dead in a lawn chair.
All around, the 8,000 or so refugees in this uninhabitable city stretched in a long line across down Convention Center Boulelvard, demanding help from police and military who kept moving past.
"They treat us like animals,'' said Angela Perkins, who had fallen to her knees, clasped her hands and screamed out a prayer. "They can send me anywhere. They can send me to Africa.''
Kevin Clark, 10, who had come to the center with his grandfather, Isaac, described the horror so many people are facing here.
"I'm scared,'' he said. "I slept on the ground last night. I don't have anything to eat. The last time I ate was Monday.''
Desperate New Orleans residents were flocking to the Superdome today, hoping for a spot on a bus to Houston's Astrodome. But the scene at the Superdome -- the shelter of last resort for up to 23,000 people -- became increasingly chaotic as the swelling crowd made it difficult for buses to get through.
Paramedics became alarmed by the sight of people with guns. The evacuation of fragile refugees, who were supposed to be airlifted to the Astrodome, ground to a halt when medical personnel received reports of gunfire and as trash fires outside the Superdome fanned unfounded fears of arson.
Richard Zuschlag, chief of Acadian Ambulance, said it had become too dangerous for his pilots. Zeuschlag said paramedics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome. He also said that during the night, when a medical evacuation helicopter tried to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner, the pilot reported 100 people were on the landing pad, some with guns.
"He was frightened and would not land,'' Zeuschlag.
Despite the angry crowds, however, the bus evacuations continued.
Superdome refugees had lined up for the first buses, some inching along in wheelchairs, some carrying babies. Almost everyone carried a plastic bag or bundled bedspread holding the few possessions they had left. Many had no idea where they were heading.
"We tried to find out. We're pretty much adrift right now,'' said Cyril Ellisworth, 46. "We're pretty much adrift in life. They tell us to line up and go, and we just line up and go.''
Not everyone in New Orleans was following directions, however.
Managers at the Covenant Home nursing center were prepared to cope with power outages and supply shortages following Hurricane Katrina. They weren't ready for looters.
The nursing home lost its bus after the driver surrendered it to carjackers. Groups of people then drove by the center, shouting to residents, ``Get out!''
On Wednesday, 80 residents, most of them in wheelchairs, were evacuated to other nursing homes in the state.
"We had excellent plans. We had enough food for 10 days,'' said Peggy Hoffman, the home's executive director. "Now we'll have to equip our department heads with guns and teach them how to shoot.''
Looters around New Orleans threatened survivors and ransacked stores. Some were desperate for food - others just wanted beer and TVs.
The risk to safety prompted Mayor Ray Nagin to order virtually all the city's 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission and return to the streets to stop the thefts that turned more hostile as the city plunged deeper into chaos.
"They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas - hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now,'' Nagin said.
Amid the turmoil on Wednesday, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. A crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.
New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by people on the street.
Authorities said another officer was shot in the head and a looter was wounded in a shootout. Both were expected to survive.
Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.
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