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.
___
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Could you restate that pls? I didn't get what you are trying to say.
Actually, many of the unaffected areas are in the better part of town, and some of those houses are quite grand. Probably their vaccinations are up to date, for most of them.
So, you are willing to fund a handfull of people who refuse to leave for how long? Indefinately?
susie
Yes, but tackling old ladies is easier than going after looting sniping thugs.
I would say that this goes to show the deliberate lies and disinformation that the government worshippers such as _Jim and some of the other usual suspects continue to regurgitate.
Conservatives are supposed to be all for personal responsibility and self-reliance, but there are a few here who are nothing more than cheerleaders for unconstitutional government intrusion.
I'm afraid of that, too. Waco comes to mind.
Goodness, you're making some broad leap here.
susie
I see from the link in 132 that the city water service was turned back on, on Wednesday:
O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By Wednesday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline
It'd be cheaper!
So do some of the people who want to stay. Besides, just having a place to "wash up" will not prevent the diseases and such that they are talking about. Hard to wash away a mosquito bite. The point is that this disaster and the response on the part of our law enforcement at all levels should open our eyes. If this precedent is set it can be used by those who do not have our "best interest" at heart - or worse those who lie and say they do.
We cannot choose when it suits us to obey the Constitution and when it's OK to "bend the rules". I don't care what the h*ll has happened these people have basic rights that no piece of paper or new law, or official's decision can simply negate.
These rights are not GRANTED by the Constitution they are supposed to be PROTECTED by it. The rights themselves are inalienable - no matter what the government says or does. Will people choose to exercise those rights? Probably not as the cost would be too great at this point - unfortunately, this is how it all starts. At least that's what those I've spoken to who survived Nazi Germany have said...
I've wondered that too. I don't have an answer, but maybe they are above some empty areas. Maybe it just can run downhill to the treatment plant. I'd think it would have to be pumped up somehow though.
One clarification - those staying should NOT rely on help from the gov't either. They are and should be at this point on their own...
Yep, see #169, the city water service came back on a couple of days ago.
Mr. O'Dwyer doesn't even need to take water from his neighbor's pool anymore!
The following should endear him to all freepers who believe in the 2nd Amendment:
"Just the day before our meeting I was chatting to a leading P&I man in Greece whose face lit up at the prospect of my rendezvous with Ashton. "Ask him where he keeps his gun," he said. Ashton's face creases with laughter as I pose the question. Reaching into his pocket, he draws out his wallet. "Here it is. No matter where I go, I always have my gun with me," he says pointing at his US gun licence. Shooting is, in fact, one of Ashton's passions, along with running and reading. With six marathons already under his belt - three in New York, two in London and one in Moscow - Ashton still tries to run eight miles each day before work.. And he doesn't appear to show any signs of slowing down."
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:T0wOhJuhElsJ:www.maritimeadvocate.com/i20_atth.php+ashton+o%27dwyer+new+orleans&hl=en
"These rights are not GRANTED by the Constitution they are supposed to be PROTECTED by it"
Bump
Any time you produce a gun by the handle in front of a cop, he takes it as a threat, on a calm peaceful day it is a threat. These guys have been getting shot at alot lately (good thing gangbangers are crappy shots. I never see them at the range.) They are keenly aware that being shot by an old lady is as dangerous as anyone else. You would do the same. They weren't using lethal force or even excessive force. Just dealing with the situation.
>>>The idiocy continues. You think there's never been a mosquito in New Orleans before? Guffaw. Obviously, a yankee.>>>
LOL You are brilliant!! I mean really, why can't these people understand that there are plenty of misquitos in NO, always have been.
Oh wait, maybe they are concerned about THE ROTTING BODIES/RAW SEWAGE/TOXIC WASTE CHEMICALS IN WATER THE MISQUITOS ARE HATCHING IN??
Mosquitos have always been in New Orleans. Always. It's surrounded by swamps, and there are bayous and canals within the city.
That would be valid if mosquitoes were infectious. They aren't, but the diseases they carry are.
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