Free Republic

Emergency response personnel faced grueling tasks across St. Bernard Parish on Wednesday, as the receding waters showed the full impact of Hurricane Katrina. Clean up crews labored to skim off a thick layer of crude oil, spilled from a tank at the Murphy Oil refinery, that soiled east Chalmette homes as far west as Paris Road. All the while, rescue teams tended to dozens of calls from residents seeking a way out — many of them people who turned down rescuers just days ago but are now running out of water and food or just had enough of the stench...