EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE BELOW:
Charity Hospital, one of several facilities attempting to evacuate
patients, was forced to halt the effort after coming under sniper
fire. (Full story)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/index.html
Relief workers confront 'urban warfare'
Violence disrupts evacuation, rescue efforts in New Orleans
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 11:36 p.m. EDT (03:36 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Violence disrupted relief efforts
Thursday in New Orleans as authorities rescued desperate residents
still trapped in the flooded city and tried to evacuate thousands of
others living among corpses and human waste.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown said his
agency was attempting to work "under conditions of urban warfare."
Police snipers were stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to
protect it from armed miscreants roaming seemingly at will.
Officers warned a CNN crew to stay off the streets because of
escalating danger, and cautioned others about attempted shootings and
rapes by groups of young men.
"This is a desperate SOS," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in a
statement Thursday afternoon, with thousands of people stranded at the
city's convention center with no food, water or electricity -- and
fading hope. (See video on the desperate conditions -- 4:36 )
Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on
the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness
of relief efforts.
"Why is no one in charge?" asked one frustrated evacuee at the
convention center. "I find it hard to believe."
Government officials insisted they were putting forth their best
efforts and pleaded for patience, saying further help was on the way.
One displaced resident at the Louisiana Superdome issued a warning to
authorities who may be headed to the stadium, where up to 30,000
people sought refuge after Monday's Hurricane Katrina and now await
evacuation to Texas by bus.
"Please don't send the National Guard," Raymond Cooper told CNN by
telephone. "Send someone with a bullhorn outside the place that can
talk to these people first."
He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply
dragging corpses into corners.
"They have quite a few people running around here with guns," he said.
"You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these
girls."
Elsewhere, groups of armed men wandered the streets, buildings
smoldered and people picked through stores for what they could find.
Charity Hospital, one of several facilities attempting to evacuate
patients, was forced to halt the effort after coming under sniper
fire. (Full story)
Recovery efforts also continued Thursday in Mississippi, where Katrina
smashed entire neighborhoods and killed at least 185 people.
"We got hit by the worst natural disaster in the history of the United
States," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN Thursday.
'Thousands' dead
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco gave the grim news that "thousands" of
people died in the hurricane and its aftermath in New Orleans and
surrounding parishes, though she said no official count had been
compiled.
Brown said those who ignored the city's mandatory evacuation order
bore some responsibility.
"I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately,
that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the
advance warnings," he told CNN. (Full story)
Stranded people remained in buildings, on roofs, in the backs of
trucks or gathered in large groups on higher ground, with little
knowledge of when -- or if -- help would come.
Despite the deteriorating conditions in the city, hurricane survivors
from neighboring Plaquemines Parish have started streaming into the
city, according to Nagin.
"We are overwhelmed and out of resources, but we welcome them with
open arms and will figure this out together," the mayor said in a
written statement.
Police officers told CNN that some of their fellow officers had simply
stopped showing up for duty, cutting manpower by 20 percent or more in
some precincts.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that 4,200
National Guard troops trained as military police will be deployed in
New Orleans over the next three days, which he said would quadruple
the law enforcement presence in the city.
Pentagon officials said the first contingent of 100 military police
officers would arrive at Louis Armstrong International Airport at 10
p.m. (11 p.m. ET) -- combat-ready for immediate deployment in New
Orleans.
'Unsanitary and unsafe'
Blanco said Thursday she has requested the mobilization of 40,000
National Guard troops to restore order and assist in relief efforts.
A humanitarian catastrophe unfolded at the convention center, where
thousands of increasingly frustrated people waited for help amid dead
bodies, feces and garbage.
Numerous bodies could be seen, both inside and outside the facility,
and one man died of a seizure while a CNN crew was at the scene.
A National Guard helicopter dropped food and water Thursday afternoon,
although the amount was far short of enough to meet the needs of the
throngs that had gathered.
Nagin advised those gathered at the center to march over the Crescent
City Connection bridge to the west bank of the Mississippi River to
find relief in neighboring Jefferson Parish.
"The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running
out of supplies," said Nagin, adding that officials did not expect to
have enough buses for evacuations.
Brown told CNN Thursday evening that federal officials only found out
about the convention center crisis earlier in the day, and that he had
since directed that "all available resources" be made available there.
Boat rescue teams looking for Katrina survivors told CNN they had been
ordered to stand down Thursday by FEMA officials concerned about
security.
However, FEMA issued a statement from Washington denying it had
suspended operations, though the agency conceded there had been
"isolated incidents where security has become an issue."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the Coast Guard
has rescued about 3,000 people from flooded areas in New Orleans and
the surrounding parishes.
At the city's airport, a field hospital set up by FEMA was
"overwhelmed" with patients, a medical team commander said.
Equipment normally used to move luggage was instead ferrying patients
to a treatment center and to planes and buses for evacuation.
"I do not have the words in my vocabulary to describe what is
happening here," said Ozro Henderson. "'Catastrophe' and 'disaster'
don't explain it."
Outside the Superdome, throngs of people waiting for a bus ride to
Texas completely covered an outside plaza, where they waited in the
heat and rain.
Buses ferried displaced residents to Houston's Astrodome, which will
serve as a shelter until FEMA can come up with more permanent housing.
"We're finding more and more people coming out of the woodwork," Brown
said. "They're appearing in places we didn't know they existed."
Blanco said more school buses would be brought in from across
Louisiana to increase the pace of the evacuation.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it expected to complete the
sealing off of the 17th Street Canal, where a flood-control levee
breached. (Recovery efforts)
Other developments
