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.
___
"The took the guns, now they are coming back for the people themselves."
==============================
After staying up protecting their neighborhood from looters, Algier's Point resident Gareth Stubbs gets some sleep next to an arsenal of guns. The men slept outdoors on a balcony and heard gunfire on their streets every night following the storm.
Brudley Kibodeaux keeps a watchful eye as firefighters fight a fire in the Bywater Wednesday, 9/07/2005 in New Orleans.
This is going to get ugly. It already has.
" Leaving voluntarily or by force, is for their own good."
Not everyone is ready to let the government run their lives.
Obviously, you don't realize that some of these homes are well-equipped and never were flooded in the first place. They can drive down the streets. So why are you and the NOPD so intent on kicking them out?
That looks like a Mossberg 18 1/2" 12 gauge pump.
The government seems bent on adding insult to injury by forcibly removing folks. I saw some people on CNN today (I was in the airport, its on continually) and they were adamant they wouldn't go without a fight.WHAT are these people doing for sanitary sewer services again?
NOT necessarily. The thing is, many of these houses were never flooded in the first place. The streets in front of them are dry. The houses are well-equipped. So why should they have to leave and go stay in some stinking shelter somewhere?
I don't know what to say.
The VISA card idea is no longer operative. Heh heh heh...
Give the folks some supplies and some guidelines. Then leave them alone. If they die, they die.
San Francisco Chronicle:9/9/05 Debra J. Saunders
It made no sense. The cops were risking their lives to arrest the looters. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had announced a pending mandatory evacuation. Yet the authorities didn't evacuate the looters -- they released them back into the city. Abrams later saw the same looters where they had been apprehended, even though they had been told not to return.
NOTHING THEY DO MAKES SENSE TO A LOT OF PEOPLE.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had announced a pending mandatory evacuation.
IN OTHER WORDS,ONLY INNOCENT TAXPAYERS THAT ARE PROTECTING THIER HOMES HAVE TO LEAVE
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.
Obviously, you don't realize that some of these homes are well-equipped and... equipped with sewage systems?
Inside the city limits and IN New Orleans?
"I don't think so Tim."
I think some in govt. have plans for all that land. One big taking. The greenies were already saying it needs to be put off limits.
I thought it was.
I heard early on, they were actually turning away ham radio operators that were bringing in portable repeaters and other commo equipment.
Anyone else here this?
I heard they are already shooting the dogs/cats too......
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