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.
___
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.
Seems to me that evicting 10,000 peopls is a waste of time at this point. I'm not convinced that going postal is going to look very pretty, or accomplish all that much.
I saw them drag that old woman out of her own house yesterday on FOX.
That was disgracful. She was in her own house, for Petes sake, and she asked THEM politely to leave. Instead they drug her out.
I hope some of those attorneys we all love to hate so much (Including me) have been hired by her and are preparing a $100 million suit against the city.
All of us will be safer for it.
Remove the innocent while the gangs run the street. The NOPD screwed this up under the direction of Eddie Compass who has lost all of the little credibility he had before the storm.
A good portion of your officers leave their post, some loot and others drive their squad cars to Houston and you DO NOTHING. Now you know why no one respects you especially those who stuck it out and did their job with honor.
You should give your office keys to the Mayor, cause you suck.
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.
It's going to look great with the storm troopers pulling citizens kicking and screaming (or dead) from their homes. I hope they reconsider and let them stay.
If she wins the lawsuit, what will New Orleans do, give her a few city blocks?
Absolutely, because no one has demanded the government save these remarkably uninformed souls, right? I'll be the first to drum the government out of my house, but as long as the other 300 million of you are screaming at them to save my sorry behind, I don't have a chance.
"I saw them drag that old woman out of her own house yesterday on FOX."
=======================
If it's not already bad enough, those who refuse to evacuate now because they won't leave their pets, are seeing their pets shot to death in front of them -- the following is for St. Bernard Parish.
http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/content/shared/news/nation/stories/09/08KATRINA_RESCUE.html
I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that those wishing to stay will likely die if they do. Unless we're willing to extend aid in such a fashion to keep them alive. And that would be like using tax dollars to pay for SCUBA equipment for some nut that wants to live under the sea.
The took the guns, now they are coming back for the people themselves.
I'm so pissed right now.
I hope I am on the jury. She will get more.
Let 'em stay. But since their presence is adding to the cost and the duration of the recovery effort, deny them their $2000 FEMA Visa card.
That's my take also.
I'll have to admit I've had a change of heart on this. It would be better if folks avoided the disease that may come upon them. However, would I force someone to turn over their life's achievements to the bulldozer or looters?
The government MUST do better than this. This is adding government abuse to the list of things that have already befallen these folks.
Exactly what they're doing. Some of these houses are high and dry, and not at all flooded. Yet they're making them leave. (And I won't even get into the gun grabbing.)
It's called personal responsiblity. If they want to stay I can't see how the govt can force them out.
From sickness and disease, lack of food and water. OR all of the above. Lest we forget, the looter shooters trying to kill anyone in sight.
Leaving voluntarily or by force, is for their own good.
it is a waste. we need them there, and more, to begin the rebuilding in the areas that can be brought back in the short term.
pump the place out, get the electricity back on, and start getting as much of the city as possible back on its feet!
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