New Orleans 'holdouts' to be flushed out with force

New Orleans 'holdouts' to be flushed out with force
By Philippe Naughton, Times Online

SOURCE:

Police and soldiers were preparing today to use force to evacuate thousands of people who refuse to leave their homes in flooded New Orleans, as questions were raised about the qualifications of those in charge of the much-criticised disaster relief effort.

Officials estimate that as many as 10,000 people still remain in New Orleans, where toxic floodwaters are gradually receding. But the task of collecting rotten corpses has barely begun 11 days after Hurricane Katrina breached the city's flood defences.

Mayor Ray Nagin, who has said that the death toll from the storm and flood could reach 10,000, has ordered the forcible evacuation of those who refuse to leave the city while it is pumped out and basic services restored.

"The ones who wanted to leave, I would say most of them are out," said Detective Sergeant James Imbrogglio.

Although no residents have been removed by force yet, some of those evacuated yesterday said they had been put under extreme pressure. Some of the "holdouts" are refusing to leave without their pets.

"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?"

Eddie Compass, the New Orleans Police Chief, said that officers would use the "minimum amount of force" necessary to persuade those who remain to evacuate.

The official death toll from the disaster has climbed past 300 in the two states hit hardest by the hurricane. Louisiana has confirmed 118 deaths, on top of 201 in Mississippi.

Congress has now allocated more than $60 billion to Katrina relief and America's most expensive natural disaster could end up costing as much as $200 billion - most of it already earmarked to rebuild New Orleans after the failure of its flood levees.

A Pew Research Centre poll foundthat 67 per cent of Americans thought President Bush could have done more to speed up relief efforts, and just 28 per cent believed he did all he could. Mr Bush's approval rating fell to 40 per cent, down four points since July to the lowest point Pew has recorded.

Colin Powell, the former US Secretary of State who has been touted as a possible leader of the disaster revory effort, has criticised the disaster response at all level of government.

"There was more than enough warning over time about the dangers to New Orleans. Not enough was done. I don’t think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don’t know why," he said in an interview to be broadcast on ABC.

Equally damaging were reports questioning the qualifications of the top staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).The Washington Post claimed today that the top three officials at the agency were all given their jobs after working on Mr Bush's election campaign in 2000 and none had any disaster relief experience.

Time magazine meanwhile questioned the veracity of the official biography of Michael Brown, the Fema director, as it appears on the agency's website. It questioned Mr Brown's claim to have worked as the "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight" for the city of Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970s.

"The assistant is more like an intern," said Claudia Deakins, a city spokeswoman, told the magazine. Bill Dashner, a former Edmond city manager who employed Mr Brown, recalled him as an assistant who was "very loyal". "He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt," said Mr Dashner.

As the political fallout continued, rescue workers are faced with the challenge of identifying bodies that may be bloated and decayed beyond recognition. Mortuary workers are logging any information that may help identify bodies, such as where they were found, and collecting personal effects.

At the temporary mortuary set up in St Gabriel, near New Orleans, where 67 bodies had been collected by last night, 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 also 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 are also in place, officials said the operation 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 last night.

Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, toured parts of the ravaged Gulf Coast yesterday, travelling through downtown New Orleans in a military Humvee and claimed significant progress.

But Democrats are threatening to boycott the naming of a panel that Republican leaders are proposing to investigate the administration’s planning for and response to the storm. Harry Read, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said it was like a baseball pitcher calling "his own balls and strikes."

A much-vaunted plan to give refugees immediate access to debit cards with a credit of $2,000 per household was suspended after news of the scheme prompted chaos at the Houston Astrodome. Fema said that with the exception of some refugees at the Astrodome, it would send out cheques or deposing the money directly in bank accounts.

==============================
Body bags arrive as survivors are forced to leave
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1772194,00.html

==============
Hurricane Katrina Relief
Your support is critical. Help rush relief supplies to Katrina victims!
http://www.feedthechildren.org

You can help the animals
left behind by hurricane Katrina. Donate thru IFAW today!
http://www.ifaw.org

Follow Hurricane Katrina
Get the latest on Hurricane Katrina with WFAA - Dallas Ft. Worth news.
http://www.WFAA.com

Buy Sandbags Now
All Sandbags Are In Stock Overnight Shipping Available
http://www.911sandbags.com/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/index.asp