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.
___
Another quote from that article:
On a sultry morning earlier this week, Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water to flush the toilet in his home.
>>>So why should they have to leave and go stay in some stinking shelter somewhere?>>>
How do you suppose their human waste is being disposed of? Where do you think they are getting their drinking water? At some point, they will run out of supplies. So they are allowed to say "No thanks, I'll stay, but be sure to drop me some supplies by every few days"?
Agreed. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar just as sometimes government action in the face of catastrophe is just government action in the face of catastrophe. I'm going to bow out of the discussion and just hope my elected officials don't spend my next two years' salary.
I'm sorry I touched a nerve.
susie
I think it violates the 5th Amendment to the Constitution.
That said, when Freepers themselves give the government the right to ignore the Constitution, and not only don't demand a court hearing before ANY action being taken............well, as I said, this is going to end badly.
He certainly is a lawyer, take a look -- I think anybody trying to wrest his property from him is going to be sorry...
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:T0wOhJuhElsJ:www.maritimeadvocate.com/i20_atth.php+ashton+o%27dwyer+new+orleans&hl=en
Ashton has his grandparents to thank for sparking his interest in all things maritime. His grandfather's stories of life at sea, coupled with his trips to Europe as a youngster, set his heart on becoming involved in the shipping industry. Admiralty law took his interest at an early age and today he is a partner at New Orleans-based law firm Lemle & Kelleher, where he has worked since December 1971.
"I am fortunate to have been born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the father of all waters - the muddy Mississippi," says Ashton. After studying at Loyola University School of Law, he was admitted into practice in 1971 following the successful completion of the Louisiana State Bar exam. Today, he is a leading admiralty and maritime trial lawyer specialising in death and personal injury, collision, pollution, FD&D, cargo and charter party cases. But one of the more recent highlights of his career came when he represented John Angelicoussis in a collision case. "The real challenge was representing such a high-profile and prominent shipowner, but every favourable jury verdict or judgment is a career highlight too," says Ashton.
That sounds alot cheaper than what they've been doing.
I only say it because the first time I saw the clip on FOX they had a short clip that looked like they tackled her for no reason. Then I saw the long clip with the pistol in her hand. What do you think the cops would do to you if you had a gun in that situation ? They probably would have shot me. Not tackled me.
>>>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's the idiot? So tell me what DOES breed in the water genius? Misquitos. Maybe you could gather up all the misquitos and ask them politely to not go biting people in the area that isn't flooded. Think they'll listen?
Actually, no. Most Freepers don't believe all government actions should be the result of the courts. Has this dude been here long?
Out of curiosity, I wonder where the water from the toilet goes since I assume the water treatment plant is not working. Maybe they have septic systems, altho I don't think you usually have those inside city limits.
susie
Yep, I suspect they are too, but then again, maybe they are a lot younger?
Do you think the difference might be that the rescuers are not living in it, that they have a place they can go clean up and that they have fresh clean water to drink?
So they are evicted out of their own homes so they can clean up? Out of the thousands of troops, hundreds of choppers and law enforcement, they can't bring in a few gallons of fresh water for those that prefer to stay behind, to rebuild, and clean up around their own homes?
Well, it's all on film, so they better be thinking about getting a lawyer. :)
You're wrong. You DO have reason to be concerned.
Your house can be siezed to make room for a store, and now you can be forceably drug from your home when some government official decides it's in your best interest (as determined by him).
You have no right to a judge.
Freepers urinating on the lives of millions of brave American men, now dead.
I'm glad I'm getting old.
It isn't "all" perfectly fine. Only in some areas of town. Get real.
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