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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.
___
We once had a "plumbing emergency" that required new carpeting, for that matter. We sure as heck didn't abandon the house and everything in it--or call up the NG to kill our pets because of it.
And by the way, West Nile is just about everywhere--we have it here, also encephalitis. No one is evacuating us, either.
The ones who have to wade water should most definitely leave, but not with guns pointed at them. The ones who are ok and have what they need (power and water in some places--so they even have air conditioning I presume)--let them stay. As long as they know there won't be any federal or state assistance, and frankly, they don't seem to need it, what's the beef?
The beef is all about control. This country has been slowly but surely moving towards a Police State for years. The problem is, our Citizens have been "educated" into believing that government knows best.
The Government doesn't know best. It's just the government and when you get right down to it, WE the People are the Government.
It's past time to make those jackasses in positions of ELECTED authority realize that fact.
Gosh, people have plumbing emergencies all the time. We had to rip the carpet out of the girl's room, because the sewer pipe collapsed, and backed up into the house. Had to replace all the floor tile, too. Heck, we just held our noses and took care of it.
That's another thing. We have reports of West Nile infected mosquitoes here in So Cal. All they have to do is spray.
It's going to look even worse when some citizens decide to engage the troopers in a genuine firefight in front of Shep's camera. Imagine, US troops firing on citizens - Waco II. Disgusting.
I agree, and I'll add that the group of criminals includes those with badges in this case.
Thank you.
How did the interview go? Did Powell out himself further?
Since most of the Democrat voters have been removed from New Orleans, and many are likely never to come back when they realize what a [bleep]hole it really was, he needs to expel Republicans to prevent losing power. Note that the really wealthy people who can afford their own security guards probably vote Democrat, so there's no problem letting them stay.
Three reasons I can see:
and maybe a fourth:
It's only a waste of time if you believe Nagin doesn't want to:
It was a warm fuzzy soft little interview. Powell didn't say much more than the quotes on that thread yesterday. Baba kept pressing whether he was going to run for office, and he kept smiling and referred those questions to his wife. Baba interviewed Mrs. Powell, who said she didn't want him to run.
I started nodding off.
Wouldn't hurt to add in the Landrieu bunch to that.
Mary, Mary, Quite (To The) Contrary
Politics: Louisiana's senior senator, whose brother is lieutenant governor and whose father was New Orleans' mayor, is blaming President Bush for "the staggering incompetence of the federal government." Come again?
more at link
Four excellent and thoroughly disgusting reasons. I don't suppose Nagin and his buddies realize that the lid is off their corrupt administrations. I think Blanco does, though. She's avoiding everyone like the plague.
I saw that thread. Seems that all the politicians are somehow related. Mary, Mitch, Moon, Phyllis Landrieau. Sheesh!
Don't worry, it's still Bush's fault.
Ah, you've got it down. ABF. All Bush's Fault!
MSNBC just repeated the lie:
"There is a mandatory evacuation order for NO, but as of yet no one is being forced out of their homes."
Guess they managed to miss viewing the video of the older woman getting thrown down in her kitchen, and "escorted" out of her house.
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