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.
___
no
Believe it or not, water and electricity are on in some of these areas. You wouldn't want to drink the water, but it's fine for flushing.
"Also known as "closing the barn door after the horse has left."
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Closing the barn door while the horse is still inside and then setting it on fire perhaps?
I can't see how sanitary conditions would be good but it's not a sufficient reason to force people out of their homes at gunpoint.DEATH swimming in the water; but you don't see that ...
Neither did the general public up until about the time of Louie Pasteur.
It's not a simple matter of getting the water out. They aren't going to be rebuilding anything anytime soon. These folks will likely be in the way, they will require services of some sort (water/food/sewer/trash removal/etc). Where are they going to get those things? Who is going to supply them?
I have mixed feelings about them being removed, because I'm sure I would not be anxious to leave my house to the looters (and I saw a woman leaving with the police AND HER DOG, so I rather doubt some of these they won't let me take my pets stories). However, who is going to get these people supplies?
susie
You wouldn't want to drink the water, but it's fine for flushing.I like your syle of thinking; to hell with 'where it goes', as long as it ain't in my toilet no more.
Naive ...
You obviously haven't read the posts or watched the newscasts where it's blatantly obvious these areas are high and dry. Guess you didn't want to hear that.
Who the hells idea was that? Like a bus involved in collision in almost every big city, everyone in the area claims to be on it so they can collect.
What did they think was going to happen?
Yep. There were orders that camera crews couldn't go in with FEMA but luckily cnn fought it, and now at least some of the "clean-up" will be documented.
There is now a 3 day time limit during which animal rescue groups can save as many as they can, but after that point, the animals that are left are just going to be shot.
Saw that over on http://www.nola.com on their pet rescue section.
Check again, "tim." Things are up and running in some parts of town.
"I heard early on, they were actually turning away ham radio operators that were bringing in portable repeaters and other commo equipment."
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I hadn't heard that one yet.
But here's one for you . .
Almost every household in the country now has at least one cell phone.
All Blanco-The-Braindead had to do was request for 2 or 3 emergency cell phone repeaters to be installed on high ground in the city with emergency power generators and almost every soul in the city could have had instant communications with disaster response forces.
(No charge for that . .)
It's sure starting to look that way. I'm really having a hard time with this.
some areas have no flood waters. some areas only have street flooding, the waters have not entered the structures. those areas can be brought back online in a modest amount of time. look, I am not saying this is going to be easy, but we need to have positive momentum.
If it's an area where there never was any flooding in the first place, how can "death be swimming in the water?" What an idiot.
"Who the hells idea was that (Visa debit card)?Like a bus involved in collision in almost every big city, everyone in the area claims to be on it so they can collect."
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I don't know, but perhaps Mark Brown had a hand in it?
Exactly what part of 'disaster area' do you not understand?These idiots were warned beforehand that a hurricane was coming and that they must evacuate. Their presence has only served to endanger more lives, including their own, during the rescue phase of this disaster.
This whole scenario, starting with 'a hurricane is coming' to 'last holdouts arrested and removed', is reading like a cartoon from Mad Magazine.
As you have fondness for the old lady who was dragged from her home, and remembering that there is no electricity, water, or sewage that is working, exactly where does this fine old lady distribute her bowel droppings? Sanitary, isn't it???
And BTW, it doesn't seem to me that you are seriously bothered by $100 million dollar lawsuits!!!!
So, are you suggesting they just let people stay in the areas that are dry and have electricity and sewage working?
susie
We have about a month's supply of water, food, flashlights, generator, guns ... and I imagine quite a few NO residents think like we do. Based othe homicide rate, NO isn't a particularly safe place when things are going well, I can't imagine it's any less safe now.
It's probably a lot less dangerous than a few nights at the Superdome.
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