Posted on 09/06/2005 1:22:38 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
Water Receding Noticeably in New Orleans
By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer 27 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS - With a major levee break finally plugged, engineers struggled to pump out the flooded city Tuesday as authorities braced for the horrors the receding water is certain to reveal. "It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," the mayor warned.
The Army Corps of Engineers began pumping the water out after using rocks and sandbags to close a levee break that swamped 80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Across the city, the water was dropping noticeably, and the Corps said Tuesday the area under water had fallen to about 60 percent.
"I'm starting to see water levels much lower than I've seen," Mayor Ray Nagin said after surveying his city from the air. "Even in areas where the water was as high as the rooftops, I started to see parts of the buildings." He added: "I'm starting to see rays of light."
Still, he warned that what awaits authorities below the toxic muck would be gruesome. A day earlier, he said the death toll in New Orleans could reach 10,000.
Walter Baumy, a Corps manager in charge of the engineering job, said it will take 24 to 80 days to drain the city.
"We're working every aveunue to do whatever we can to get things back in order," he said.
Exactly how long the job will take depends on a number of factors. Among other things, the condition of the pumps — especially whether they were submerged and damaged — is not yet fully known, the Corps said. Also, the water is full of debris, and while there are screens on the pumps, it may be necessary to stop and clean them from time to time.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, began sending paratroopers from the Army's storied 82nd Airborne Division to New Orleans to use small boats, including inflatable Zodiac craft, to launch a new search-and-rescue effort in flooded sections of the city. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, division commander, said about 5,000 paratroopers would be in place by Tuesday.
Boat rescue crews and a caravan of law enforcement vehicles from around the country also searched for people to rescue.
"In some cases, it's real easy. They're sitting on the porch with their bags packed," said Joe Youdell of the Kentucky Air National Guard. "But some don't want to leave and we can't force them."
Nagin warned: "We have to convince them to leave. It's not safe here. There is toxic waste in the water and dead bodies and mosquitoes and gas. We are pumping about a million dollars' worth a gas a day in the air. Fires have been started and we don't have running water."
Nagin said some dry sections of the city may have running water within 36 hours. The system needs to be flushed out before that can happen, he said.
Early Tuesday, fire broke out at a big house in the city's historic Garden District — a neighborhood with lots of antebellum mansions. National Guardsmen cordoned off the area as firefighters battled the blaze by helicopter. In all, firefighters battled at least four major fires in New Orleans by midafternoon.
At the same time, the effort to get the evacuees back on their feet continued on several fronts.
Patrick Rhode, deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said evacuees would receive debit cards so that they could begin buying necessary personal items. He said the agency was going from shelter to shelter to make sure that evacuees received cards quickly and that the paperwork usually required would be reduced or eliminated.
"We're eliminating as much red tape as humanly possible," Rhode said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
The Air Force late Monday concluded its huge airlift of elderly and serious ill patients from New Orleans' major airport. A total of 9,788 patients and other evacuees were evacuated by air from the New Orleans area.
Local officials bitterly expressed frustration with the federal government's sluggish response as the tragedy unfolded.
"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said on CBS' "The Early Show."
"So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."
In New Orleans, Deputy Police Superintendent W.J. Riley estimated that fewer than 10,000 people were left in the city. Some simply did not want to leave their homes, while others were hanging back to loot or commit other crimes, authorities said.
The mayor said the city had the authority to force residents to evacuate but didn't say if it was taking that step. He denied reports that the city will no longer hand out water to people who refuse to leave.
The leader of troops patrolling New Orleans declared the city largely free of the lawlessness that plagued it in the days following the hurricane. He lashed out at suggestions that search-and-rescue operations were being stymied by random gunfire and lawlessness.
"Go on the streets of New Orleans — it's secure," Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said to a reporter. "Have you been to New Orleans? Did anybody accost you?"
In neighboring Jefferson Parish, some of its 460,000 residents got a chance to briefly see their flooded homes, and to scoop up soaked wedding pictures and other cherished mementos.
"I won't be getting inside today unless I get some scuba gear," said Jack Rabito, a 61-year-old bar owner whose one-story home had water lapping at the gutters.
___
Toxic is the MSM's (and environ-whakos) favorite word for "scary" its used for everything from dirty dishes to nuclear radiation.
The more they use this term the less believable it is.
Yes, the sewer system overflowed, and there is sh*t floating everywhere. Given a month that will be degraded to the point where it won't even stink much.
Yes, there is some oil and gas floating. Big mess, but unless you intend to drink it its hardly toxic, or car mechanics would be dropping like flies.
And yes, the press likes to report on the gaurdsman that got burns in his leg wadeing around in the mess. Who knows what he stepped in, could be acids released from metal pickeling operations, or meth labs or something. Point is, it will soon be diluted to the point of undetectability.
Some "wake up" (graphic) photos are already up on Ogrish.com
I agree, the more they use those terms the less believable it is.
They don't fill a below-sea-level city in a bowl.
We can't let this crap stand.
So I presume that you disagree with this statement? I wonder how many of these folks that were unable to evacuate or refused to evacuate had 72-hour kits. If I had been convinced that Big Gubmint would provide for me, I wouldn't have a 72-hour kit either...but I do. Those unfortunate people have been duped.
Another gutless wonder move.
I suspect Nagin will never move against these people, because he knows that with them out there is nothing to prevent more rational minds from bulldozing the entire area that was flooded and passing laws to prevent re-building a residential are below sea level.
He's using these usefull idiots as his grip on this dead city, and his grip on the city assures him future federal funds. Follow the money.
I lived along the Mississippi River during 1993, and there were lots of cities under water for weeks at a time. But I agree that this New Orleans cleanup is gonna be bad. At least Davenport had a constant flow washing their crud down river.
I was reacting to "Let that be a lesson to you and the people of your parish".
A pretty expensive lesson, I must say.
"It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," the mayor warned.
IOW pay up you suckers! Pay up all US taxpayers! Pay up whitey, you owe us! Cough up billions to rebuild our submerged sin city
They learned a long time ago to keep saying the same thing over and over again until idiots start repeating it.
Someone needs to put a sock in Nagin's pie hole.
We won't hear much about receding waters unless they reveal thousands of dead. Katrina will be dropped as a hot topic, to be replaced by dark hints of an 'investigation' into entrenched racism in the Bush admin.. Which, fits neatly into Liberal demands for a minority Liberal, perhaps a woman, to take O'Connor's place on the bench, while O'Connor, noticeably frail, is to stay on for another year as...ta da! Chief Justice...for the sake of 'unity'. I am so sick of the MSM and Schumer, Pelosi, Kennedy, Hill and Bill, etc..
Anyone can be a village idiot. It takes some work to be the parish idiot (Broussard) or city idiot (Nagin).
Yes. His name is Terry Ebberts. His claim to fame here is standing around, for five days, saying "The lack of response here is a national disgrace," forgetting, obviously, that the initial response was his job definition.
Hey, pal! Broussard has made a fool of himself the last couple of days, crying like a kid on Meet the Press because one of his cohort's mother drowned while waiting "for the cavalry."
Why didn't her son go get his mother? You would have. I would have. Why did he wait for the feds to come in?
Sheesh. We have had emergency managers who slept in their pickup truck with the light rack switch and bullhorn within arms reach when there was nothing at all going on. In fact, we have had emergency managers who would turn the whole town out for drill at 3 AM. If they have an emergency manager that doesn't like to give orders to a crowd just for practice, they need to find a new one.
All the money that is pouring in from everywhere I'll bet is enough to give every private homeowner in the city a substantial cash allowance for a new home elsewhere -- andthat is what should be done with the money, instead of "rebuilding" the cesspool.
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