Posted on 09/09/2005 6:06:57 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
NEW ORLEANS
Authorities said their sweep of this deluged city for the last voluntary evacuees was nearly complete, with officers ready to carry out the mayor's order to forcibly remove the thousands who remain in their homes.
"The ones who wanted to leave, I would say most of them are out," said Detective Sgt. James Imbrogglio.
Between 5,000 and 10,000 residents are believed left in the city, where toxic floodwaters have started to slowly recede but the task of collecting rotting corpses and clearing debris will likely take months.
Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Jason Rule said his crew pulled 18 people from their homes Thursday. He said some of the holdouts did not want to leave unless they could take their pets.
"It's getting to the point where they're delirious," Rule said. "A couple of them don't know who they were. They think the water will go down in a few days."
Police Chief Eddie Compass said officers would use the "minimum amount of force" necessary to persuade those who remain to evacuate. Although no one was forcibly removed Thursday, some residents said they left under extreme pressure.
"They were all insisting that I had to leave my home," said Shelia Dalferes, who said she had 15 minutes to pack before she and her husband were evacuated.
"The implication was there with their plastic handcuffs on their belt. Who wants to go out like that?"
As searches for the living continued, the grim task of retrieving corpses intensified under the broiling sun. Officials raised the death toll in Louisiana to 118 Thursday, though New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin has said up to 10,000 could be dead in that city alone. State officials have ordered 25,000 body bags.
Authorities are now faced with the challenge of how to identify bodies that may be bloated and decayed beyond recognition. At two collection sites, federal mortuary teams were collecting information that may help identify the bodies, such as where they were found. Personal effects were also being logged.
At the temporary morgue set up in nearby St. Gabriel, where 67 bodies had been collected by Thursday, the remains were being photographed and forensic workers hope to use dental X-rays, fingerprints and DNA to identify them.
Dr. Bryan Patucci, coroner of St. Bernard Parish, said it may be impossible to identify all the victims until authorities compile a final list of missing people.
Decaying corpses in the floodwaters could pose problems for engineers who are desperately trying to pump the city dry. While 37 of the 174 pumps in the New Orleans area were working and 17 portable pumps were in place Thursday, officials said the mammoth undertaking could be complicated by corpses getting clogged in the pumps.
"It's got a huge focus of our attention right now," said John Rickey of the Army Corps of Engineers. "Those remains are people's loved ones."
Some 400,000 homes in the city were also still without power, with no immediate prospect of getting it back. And fires continued to be a problem. At least 11 blazes burned across the city Thursday, including at historically black Dillard University where three buildings were destroyed.
Also Thursday, Congress rushed through an additional $51.8 billion for relief and recovery efforts and President Bush pledged to make it "easy and simple as possible" for uprooted storm victims to collect food stamps and other government benefits.
In an attempt to stem the criticism of the slow federal response to the disaster, Vice President Dick Cheney also toured parts of the ravaged Gulf Coast, claiming significant progress but acknowledging immense obstacles remained to a full recovery.
Meanwhile, Democrats threatened to boycott the naming of a panel that Republican leaders are proposing to investigate the administration's readiness and response to the storm. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said it was like a baseball pitcher calling "his own balls and strikes."
Democrats have urged appointment of an independent panel like the Sept. 11 commission.
Confusion continued to be a problem in many areas:
_ Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that radio equipment and portable generators she requested from the federal government a week ago had yet to arrive. Federal officials said they were tracking down the status of the items.
_ In Houston, hundreds of storm victims waited for hours to pick up debit cards for cash that had been promised by relief agencies. By noon Thursday, so many people had jammed the entrance to the sign-up area that some were overcome by the heat and police were summoned.
___
>>>I will stipulate to that if you stipulate that these neighborhoods are not flooded with sewage water and rotting corpses NOW!>>>
I will stipulate to that if you stipulate that mosquitoes (love that dictionary.com) do not always remain in flooded areas and seek out warm blooded creatures (maybe in non-flooded areas).
I'm on septic. Whole parts of cities up here are still on septic. If something unfortunate were to happen, I have an adult potty chair. Just use plastic grocery store bags lining the pot, until things get fixed. No problemo.
I've been on some primitive camping trips. One time, gangbangers wrecked the outhouses in the campground, so we dug a pit behind a nice big bush. Unfortunately that bush was Poison Oak....
I do not agree with what is going on here. I smell an eminent domain type land grab.
Actually they are having an unadvertised problem with noroviruses in the shelters.
>>>It is purely for the satisfaction of pointing it out. I love it when someone rants how someone is an idiot in a post rife with misspellings. It's . . . . . Ironic!>>>
I never called anyone an idiot. If you had bothered to read the entire thread you would see I was responding to Mizwhateverhernamewas who was calling someone ELSE an idiot.
>>>It is purely for the satisfaction of pointing it out. I love it when someone rants how someone is an idiot in a post rife with misspellings. It's . . . . . Ironic!>>>
P.S. My post wasn't 'rife' with misspellings, I misspelled one word.
Let me guess, you work for a municipal city works agency.
I will stipulate to that if you stipulate that the rising flood waters DESTROYED the mosquito breeding habitat (submerged it) and the presence of oil, gas, other hydrocarbons, and pesticides in the water has made much of the water unsuitable for mosquito habitat.
I'm not sure anymore. Some posts here indicate that the services are back on in some neighborhoods. They can drive out for their own supplies. All they need is bug spray, imo. It doesn't sound like they are restricting forceable evacuation to the parts under water.
Are you reading the articles and links posted??
Well that says it in a nutshell. Reality is what you feel. No wonder you're supporting baby doc nagin.
LOL . . . . I think
*reminding myself* ping to check out that video later
I like the Superdoom part but I think he may have been onto something with the fact that you would be killing the democrat base!
Right. WTH is the damn problem? This is not good.
All the dead are democrats regardless of what they were when animated.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.