Ohhh.. This is sweet...! 
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.
___
As long as I'm footing part of the preposterous bill to reconstruct a city that insists on existing below sea level in a hurricane zone, I'll be happy to defend the existing ground rules. If my fellow countrymen agree to abandon New Orleans to nature, I'll gladly support the fools wishing to stay.
Yep. It's a no brainer.
The sewers flow downhill. The dry areas will drain.
So, then you only don't want them to force people in dry areas that were not flooded to evacuate?
susie
Be careful which news reports you believe. The stench is mostly where the water was flooded. Mosquitos have ALWAYS been a problem in New Orleans. Flies have always existed. (That's why people have screens on their windows and doors.)
There's a big push to get people out of even the mostly unaffected areas. People should be asking WHY.
I agree. If that was Brown's idea, perhaps that's what cost him.
Yes, it is true. They turned away the ham radio operators with their self-supporting rigs and wouldn't let them into the City.
The reason FEMA looked good in Florida is the state responders were ready for hurricanes, had a plan in place they actually used, and had things well in hand by the time the feds arrived.
Ohhh.. This is sweet...!
OK, so if they have no sewer service working and if they have no electricity and they were flooded, then you think they should be forced to evacuate?
susie
Those people aren't costing the tax payers a dime. They're fending for themselves, unlike the "refugees" in Houston and elsewhere.
Excellent point! This whole thing is ridiculous to begin with. If they are stupid enough to stay there, let them.
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.And I could retort: "You are a short sighted fool".
Ever heard of flying insects spreading contagion?
Geez. You people have NO recollection of history, what mankind has BEEN through in regards to health and sanitation.
You guys would DIE if left on your own to 'figger' this stuff out.
The same thing your great granny did.
It's ILLEGAL to force them from their homes. The city attorney advising Nagin is either as clueless as Nagin, or else he's in one of those lines for the $2K debit cards....
You are a disgrace to Conservatism
Now this is what i call the "Rule of Common Sense"... i'd do the same thing..
Nice pic pal...tnx
Did you really just type that? Mosquitos have ALWAYS been a problem on my local golf course in Maryland; they aren't spreading deadly diseases sprouting up due to conditions similar to that of a NYC sewer.
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