Posted on 09/05/2005 2:43:49 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW ORLEANS - Police killed several men who shot at Army contractors; helicopters divided the city into grids and searched for waving survivors; and officials warned that the recovery of the dead would be ghastly.
One week after Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, the latest issue for rescuers is residents who still refuse to leave.
At least 59 bodies had been collected from Jefferson and Orleans parishes, including 10 at the Superdome. But identification of the dead, with corpses bloated and medical records submerged, was expected to be a major problem.
The U.S. Public Health Service said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, ultimately expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
"It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Jefferson Parish, still partly flooded, has decided to allow residents back in to check on their property beginning at 6 a.m. today. Residents with a valid ID showing an address will be able to stay up to three days to assess damage and retrieve belongings.
Tales from those in New Orleans Sunday ranged from the inspirational to the depressing. A woman described dancing and cooking jambalaya for nearby nursing home residents for days until a helicopter arrived. A man said he was finally letting rescuers take him away because neighborhood youths had cleaned out everything he owned.
Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley told the Associated Press that police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six.
The gunmen were firing at 14 contractors who were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.
They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.
None of the contractors was killed, Hall said.
The same bridge was the scene of a civilian helicopter crash, but the two people on board escaped with only cuts and scrapes.
Still, many people were choosing to stay in their homes, confounding a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats carrying a patchwork of city, state and federal emergency workers. The boats also dealt with gunfire and fear of water contamination.
"They tell us, 'We're OK, just keep bringing us in food and water,' " said Jimmy Breen, an emergency response official from New Mexico. "But that obviously is not a solution to the problem."
Deaths and danger
About a block away from a makeshift command center for a Federal Emergency Management Agency-coordinated operation, a bleached and bloated corpse floated on its back in the water, arms outstretched. Someone had pulled a stained T-shirt over the face of what appeared to be a middle-age man.
By late afternoon Sunday, 84 people had been extricated at the FEMA location. Ten were immediately taken to a medical facility for nonlife-threatening problems including dehydration and respiratory difficulties. The rest were put in midsize Army trucks to be moved to the convention center initially, and eventually out of the city.
The task force Breen headed included about 45 boats, 75 vehicles and just under 200 people, he said. That was a microcosm of operations across the city that evacuated hundreds Sunday.
One airboat was dispatched with New Orleans police armed with shotguns and M-16s to respond to a report that an evacuating boat heard shots and believed it was under fire several blocks away. The officers returned without having found a shooter.
The fear of the unknown motivated many of those who refused entreaties to leave flooded areas, residents said.
"There are at least 30 people at the Samuel L. Green school, and they won't leave, because they don't know where they are going to be sent," said Karl Holliday, 30, who limped off a boat Sunday with a badly sprained ankle. "But they better get some National Guard in there, because people are drinking a lot, and it is going to get a lot worse."
Dr. Louis Cataldie, medical director for emergency medical services in Louisiana, said there was an unconfirmed report that as many as 100 bodies had been located in St. Bernard Parish.
The bodies are taken to mobile morgues set up in two parts of New Orleans, he said. They're examined and then stored until relatives can be found.
The 10 dead at the Superdome had all been on respirators.
"If you were ill before the storm and you were on a respirator and the power was knocked out then I count that as a storm-related death," Cataldie said.
Violence grips community
The 9th Ward, one of the most flood-damaged parts of the city, has been violent. A small parking lot is full of police cars, all with broken windows, some with doors pried open.
National Guard troops patrolled various areas, searching damaged buildings, but could do little but talk to people they found in the alleys and doorways.
Kenneth Crawford, 47, had stayed at his home, but he said youths he recognized from the neighborhood had been systematically robbing him.
They took his tools, his stereo, his lawnmower and pried the air-conditioning unit from his window. He figured they were stockpiling items somewhere to fence later.
In the 8th Ward, a helicopter from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada picked up 25 people from the Annunciation Inn retirement home.
Raquel Jackson, 33, was glad they were leaving. She lives across the street from the home and had been caring for the residents since the storm hit.
She, her friends and family who live with her cooked, guarded and entertained them.
She said she danced for them in high-heeled shoes and made them laugh. She got on the helicopter Sunday, too.
At the Audubon Zoo, only three of 1,400 animals died.
It has the good fortune of being located on some of the city's highest ground, but it also had a disaster plan for the animals that seemed to work better than the city's plan for humans. The only fatalities so far were two otters and a raccoon, zoo curator Dan Maloney said Sunday.
The biggest problem is the low-flying helicopters that scare the animals, said assistant curator Rick Dietz.
Reporter Andrew Guy in Baton Rouge and wire services contributed to this report. Chronicle reporter Dan Feldstein compiled this report in Houston.
citydesk@chron.com
I can't believe that guy had the nerve to say, 'Keep bringing back food and water.' If I was one of the rescuers I'd be telling him, 'Get your tail end on this boat now or you are on your own because we are marking this house with the word IDIOT so everyone will know not to waste their precious food and water on you!'
You would be fun to have in a life boat. LOL
No, Katrina is not the "Chernobyl" of the United States. It is, however, a wake up call, to those with any intellect, that should you become totally dependant on government for your existance you are playing Russian roulette with your and your families lives.
Dependency is a recipe for disaster.
Sean Penn needs water-borne dysentery in a bad way. It's already in his brain.
-All that is missing is the Skipper smacking him over the head with his hat.-
Har-har-har-har!!!
***.....As Rollins recounted the trials of the past week, she punctuated parts of her story with laughter. She recalled meeting Vice President Al Gore on the plane Saturday but did not recognize him at first when he greeted her. ``I said, `you are who?'''..... http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/216619
My reaction too!!!
LOL!!
With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"
that says it all. God bless him for trying to help, but for goodness sake, next time leave your hair dresser, personal trainer, agent, make-up artist, lawyer, astrologist, massuese, dog trainer and photographer at home.
> It's just surreal.
While the tragedy out of NOLA is nearly incomprehensible, I am surprised that I have heard no one point out how the media seems to have overstated the mayhem at the Dome & Convention center.
I'll probably get flamed, but several days ago, one had the impression that hundreds of rapes and murders were occurring in these places, and the reality seems to be that there were (as I have heard it) two ghastly rapes... and now hear I hear that the deaths were all people on respirators.
Believe me, I don't want to understate the truma and danger that the survivors felt, but I do think the media sensationalized this more than the reality of the situation. Flame away.
Too bad Mr. Maloney wasn't the Mayor last week...
And especially the publicist. If it's from the heart, it is a blessing on the giver and the recipient.
Samuel R. Delany's early works were among my favorite books. Good writer.
Indeed!
Ugh, dullgrin. I could never finish it. You're right though, the first chapters could be NO today.
Because they can't tell welfare where to forward their checks.
There is also a report of a hospital in Bay St. Louis, MS, which took a direct hit from Katrina, staying in operation through the storm and taking in injured and sick people afterward. This hospital had an emergency plan and executed it, and apparently did have a generator on an upper floor and stockplies of food and water. None of the hospitals in New Orleans did. The lack of preparation and execution of emergency plans in New Olreans is continuing to astonish me.
There's probably some truth in that.
But will the mail get through?
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