As Last Refugees Escape, New Orleans Turns to Its Dead

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - As the last weary refugees evacuated from New Orleans, the shattered city drew closer to dealing with its dead, confronting a gruesome landscape of scattered corpses that were expected to number in the thousands.

No one knows how many people were killed by Hurricane Katrina and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating in the ruined city, crumpled in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.

Echoing the mayor's prediction, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday she expected the death toll to reach the thousands. And Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.

The last refugees at the Superdome and the convention center climbed aboard buses Saturday bound for shelters, but the dying continued.

Touring an airport triage center, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said "a lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day."

Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death and another commit suicide at the Superdome. Womack was beaten with a pipe and treated at the airport center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.

"One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave," he said.

Three babies died at the convention center from heat exhaustion, said Mark Kyle, a medical relief provider.

But some progress was evident. The last 300 refugees at the Superdome were evacuated Saturday evening, eliciting cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who had been standing watch over the facility for nearly a week as some 20,000 hurricane survivors waited for rescue.

On Sunday, utilities planned to send trucks into the city to assess storm damage for the first time since Katrina struck. Morgan Stewart, a spokesman for electricity provider Entergy Corp., said the National Guard would escort the company's vehicles.

The convention center was "almost empty" after 4,200 people were removed, according to Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Earlier estimates of the crowd climbed as high as 25,000.

Thousands of refugees dragged their meager belongings to buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. Yolando Sanders, who had been stuck at the convention center for five days, was among those who filed past corpses to reach the buses.

Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood running to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.

By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.

The exact number of dead won't be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city. President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast on Saturday.

"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.

The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape - and, overwhelmingly, they were black.

"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner and three of their aging Chihuahuas. They left a fourth behind they couldn't grab in time.

Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from the city, seeking safety in Texas, Tennessee and many other states.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry warned Saturday that his enormous state was running out of room, with more than 220,000 hurricane refugees camped out there and more coming. Emergency workers at the Astrodome were told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily for the next three days.

In Washington, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that more than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called the largest airlift in history on U.S. soil. He said the flights would continue as long as needed.

Thousands of people remained at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where officials turned a Delta Blue terminal into a triage unit. Officials said 3,000 to 5,000 people had been treated at the unit, but fewer than 200 remain. Others throughout the airport awaited transport out of the city.

"In the beginning it was like trying to lasso an octopus. When we got here it was overwhelming," said Jake Jacoby, a physician helping run the center.

Airport director Roy Williams said about 30 people had died, some of them elderly and ill. The bodies were being kept in refrigerated trucks as a temporary morgue.

At the convention center, people stumbled toward the helicopters, dehydrated and nearly passing out from exhaustion. Many had to be carried by National Guard troops and police on stretchers. And some were being pushed up the street on office chairs and on dollies.

Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.

"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever he has for you, he'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."

LaGarde's nurse, Ernestine Dangerfield, 60, said LaGarde had not had a clean adult diaper in more than two days. "I just want to get somewhere where I can get her nice and clean," she said.

Around the corner, a motley fleet of luxury tour buses and yellow school buses lined up two deep to pick up some of the healthier refugees. National Guardsmen confiscated a gun, knives and letter openers from people before they got on the buses.

"It's been a long time coming," Derek Dabon, 29, said as he waited to pass through a guard checkpoint. "There's no way I'm coming back. To what? That don't make sense. I'm going to start a new life."

Hillary Snowton, 40, sat on the sidewalk outside with a piece of white sheet tied around his face like a bandanna as he stared at a body that had been lying on a chaise lounge for four days, its stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.

"It's for the smell of the dead body," he said of the sheet. His brother-in-law, Octave Carter, 42, said it has been "every day, every morning, breakfast lunch and dinner looking at it."

When asked why he didn't move further away from the corpse, Carter replied, "it stinks everywhere."

Dan Craig, director of recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it could take up to six months to get the water out of New Orleans, and the city would then need to dry out, which could take up to three more months.

A Saks Fifth Avenue store billowed smoke Saturday, as did rows of warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where corrugated roofs buckled and tiny explosions erupted. Gunfire - almost two dozen shots - broke out in the French Quarter.

In the French Quarter, some residents refused or did not know how to get out. Some holed up with guns.

As the warehouse district burned, Ron Seitzer, 61, washed his dirty laundry in the even dirtier waters of the Mississippi River and said he didn't know how much longer he could stay without water or power, surrounded by looters.

"I've never even had a nightmare or a beautiful dream about this," he said as he watched the warehouses burn. "People are just not themselves."

Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill, Robert Tanner, Melinda Deslatte, Brett Martel and Mary Foster contributed to this report.

Wouldn't regular people show up at the Convention Center with a few groceries and extra bottles and diapers?

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A video pan of the convention center deck after the last "guest" was airlifted out showed a row along the bulwark of stuff that wasn't taken on the copters. It looked like a lot of trash, but included a lot of Coleman-type coolers, either brought there by the people or airlifted in by the same copters.

True they could have and should have stocked supplies at the Superdome....didn't NO and Louisiana get millions of dollars for Homeland Security? Where did the money go if not for supplies, etc.

This is SOOO true. I heard a reporter say on Saturday that people were evacuated from I-10 after SEVEN days!! The levees didn't break until Monday NIGHT! And people didn't go to the highway until the followign day...Wednesday. DO the Math...Oh, that's right. Journalists don't have to know how to add!

"Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.
"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever he has for you, he'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."

And in the midst of this horror, a refreshing breath of the human spirit whose faith is in God. No whining or blaming....just gratitude and simple faith. May God bless this dear lady and may she be a lifelong example to her granddaughter.

Thought y'all might appreciate a small light in the darkness, the rest of the article notwithstanding.

When the Jew squaters got kicked out of the Gaza Strip each one got from $350.000 to $500.000

When the Blacks were ordered out of New Orleans they got a bottle of water and a MRE.

Whats up with that.

Geraldo must be working on those dem talking points too.

On Friday, he was wailing about those people stuck in the convention center for 6 days!

At first I thought it was just his mistake, now I realize this is what is being pushed at us -- exaggerate by a couple of days the amount of time that elapsed.

The media -- how I despise most of them. They're lower than the snakes slithering through the NO floods.

"On Sunday a reporter was interviewing people going into the Superdome. One woman had 1/2 bottle of diet coke with her. The reporter said is that all you brought with you. Her response " The Red Cross will feed us".

I guess Nagin "forgot" to inform the public that the red cross would not enter the superdome because it was unsuitable as a emergency Shelter.

And Nagin figured, what the heck, it worked last time, people would show up, and go back home a few hours later. He wasn't expecting the levees to break.
Even still, Nagin KNEW the red cross would not supply the place, so he should have got Blanco to order in the National Guard, early as Thursday, so they could prepare the place, and getting as many people OUT of the city completely to lessen the demand on the Superdome. The guy is 100% responsible along with Blanco, both useless as leaders. What were they doing? Sitting at home watching tv on Sat. evening, doing NOTHING.

"When the Blacks were ordered out of New Orleans they got a bottle of water and a MRE. Whats up with that.

Only the blacks were ordered out? Or was everyone? Only the blacks were given a bottle of water and and MRE? Or was everyone affected given these items?? As it is, I guess it was just too much trouble to turn a tap and fill a few bottles of water for themselves while the taps were still working, and to prepare a few meals for themselves as well. What were they going to eat had there not been a storm?

It just so happens that the majority of people in NO are black. Don't try turn it into a race issue, because it isn't.

It is an example of what happens when the socialist system of dependancy falls apart, and how people become so dependant of 'the government" giving them everything that they just can't do anything for themselves.

"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said "a lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day."

One would expect in a city of that size, that on any given day more than ten people die, even during the best of weather.

Do people suddenly stop dying when a disaster strikes? Why are their deaths suddenly blamed on the disaster? It makes for more dramatic news I suppose...

"When the Jew squaters got kicked out of the Gaza Strip each one got from $350.000 to $500.000
When the Blacks were ordered out of New Orleans they got a bottle of water and a MRE. Whats up with that."

I hope you're being sarcastic.

Not to worry, the ACLU will be along shortly to extract their pound of flesh on behalf of the criminal element and the opportunistic socialists, and the raping and pillaging will resume.

Too bad the flood didn't happen on election day. The MAyor and his fellow Democrats would have had every black face in New Orleans on a bus headed to the polls.

I think the problem is that a lib gov can't and won't say please help!

I beg to differ. All a lib govt is good for is asking for more more more.

The Dem govt of La (Nagin and Blanko) could've asked for help from the Feds and still gotten credit for it had they done some work themselves. They did nothing but delay delay delay.

Superdome and convention centers are not evacuation sites they are deemed, "A last resort refuge." Distinction is very important and should be stressed because without Red Cross approval of evacuation shelters the Red Cross will not stock or help in those areas because they are within the Category 4 storm zone and were prone to flooding.

Maybe some of these requirements could have been waived. And why does the Red Cross have to be the one supplying the needs. A city such as N.O. should have had a supply center for this type emergency since they knew that many people were not going to be able to get out of the city. This is another example of "school bus logic". "Well we couldn't take them to a shelter because there was no food there, so we left them in their homes where they were more vulnerable." Ugh.

"These people were warned and chose to stay and those going into shelters chose not to bring food or water despite being told to do exactly that. You can't save an idiot from himself."

The tough part for me would be eating in front of a child whose parents didn't bring any food or water for them. I don't think I could do it. I would end up giving what food I had brought to children.

Too bad more NO residents don't have such a positive attitude. Amazing what faith in God and what HE is capable of can do! And this woman has been around long enough to see the old days of in-your-face racisim and opression. Yet she chooses to be thankful for God getting her through this.

A lot of folks could learn a real lesson from this lady. God Bless Nita LaGarde.

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