New Orleans – Using the unmistakable threat of force, police and soldiers went house to house Wednesday to try to coax the last 10,000 or so stubborn holdouts to leave storm-shattered New Orleans because of the risk of disease from the putrid, sewage-laden floodwaters.
“A large group of young armed men armed with M-16s just arrived at my door and told me that I have to leave,” said Patrick McCarty, who owns several buildings and lives in one of them in the city’s Lower Garden District. “While not saying they would arrest you, the inference is clear.”
Mayor C. Ray Nagin ordered law officers and the military late Tuesday to evacuate all holdouts – by force if necessary. He warned that the combination of fetid water, fires and natural-gas leaks after Hurricane Katrina made it too dangerous to stay.
In fact, the first government tests confirmed Wednesday that the amount of sewage-related bacteria in the floodwaters is at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety levels.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned stragglers not to even touch the water and pleaded: “If you haven’t left the city yet, you must do so.”
There were no reports of anyone being removed by force. And it was not clear how the order would be carried out.
National Guard officers said they do not take orders from the mayor. And even the police said they were not ready to use force just yet. It appeared that the mere threat of force would be the first option.
“We have thousands of people who want to voluntarily evacuate at this time,” Police Chief Eddie Compass said. “Once they are all out, then we’ll concentrate our forces on mandatory evacuation.”
WASHINGTON
Victims to receive $2,000 debit cards
Dispossessed victims will receive debit cards good for $2,000 to spend on clothing and other immediate needs, the Bush administration announced Wednesday.
The budget director said that about half of the newly requested funds would take the form of direct aid to individuals, and the administration said that included an estimated 320,000 of the $2,000 debit cards at a cost of $640 million.
Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said those eligible for the unprecedented debit cards would be permitted to use the money “for emergency supplies they need” such as clothing. “The concept is to get them some cash on hand which allows them, empowers them to make their own decisions about what do they need to have to repair their own lives,” he said.
NEW ORLEANS
Officers capture sniper suspect
The stepped-up evacuation came as workers trying to get into the city to restart essential services came under sniper fire. More than 100 officers and seven armored personnel carriers captured a suspect in a housing project who had been firing on workers trying to restore cellphone towers, authorities said.
“These cell teams are getting fire on almost a daily basis, so we needed to get in here and clean this thing up,” said Capt. Jeff Winn, commander of the police SWAT team. “We’re putting a lot of people on the street right now and I think that we are bringing it under control. Eight days ago this was a mess. Every day is getting a little bit better.”
The police chief said that 7,000 more military, police and other law officers on the streets had made New Orleans “probably the safest city in America right now.”
NEW ORLEANS
Morgue prepares for 5,000 bodies
Workers struggled to find and count corpses sniffed out by cadaver dogs in the 90-degree heat.
The mayor has said New Orleans’ death toll could reach 10,000. Already, a temporary warehouse morgue in rural St. Gabriel that had been prepared to take 1,000 bodies was being readied to handle 5,000.
The enormity of the disaster came ever clearer in neighboring St. Bernard Parish, which was hit by a levee break that brought a wall of water up to 20 feet high. Rep. Charlie Melancon said more than 100 people died at a dockside warehouse while they waited for rescuers to ferry them to safety. Thirty people died at a flooded nursing home in Chalmette.
WASHINGTON
Holocaust survivor donates 1,000 euros
A 90-year-old anonymous donor turned up at a U.S. diplomatic office and presented an envelope with 1,000 euros (about $1,245) for relief efforts.
It was a way of repaying a debt to the United States for being liberated by American soldiers from a concentration camp and treated more than 60 years ago, Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Wednesday in relating the incident. “This is a person who is not seeking any publicity for this act – which in the time we live makes it even more extraordinary,” he said.
DEVELOPMENTS
23 OF BIG EASY’S 148 WATER PUMPS BACK IN SERVICE
Inch by inch, flood levels continued to drop in New Orleans as more pumps came back to life, but engineers still faced a Herculean task. Only 23 of the city’s 148 pumps were working. But one major pumping station was draining 2,000 cubic feet of water out of the city every second.
BRIDGES GET LOOK; ROADWORK ON TAP
Repair crews inspected bridges and roads wrecked by Katrina, including 90 bridges in southern Louisiana alone. Contractors were hired to clear debris-blocked roads.
FARMERS TO FEEL KATRINA’S IMPACT
Hurricane Katrina will push fuel prices even higher for farmers, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday. Farmers were expected to spend $2 billion more on fuel this year even before the hurricane made landfall, said Keith Collins, the department’s chief economist.
WATER ROUTED BACK INTO LAKE
Officials said there was no alternative but to pump billions of gallons of brackish water back into Lake Pontchartrain but that it was too early to determine the harmfulness of the water being slowly drained out of New Orleans.
TANCREDO: BYPASS LOUISIANA LEADERS
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, urged him to direct federal hurricane relief aid through channels other than Louisiana public officials, claiming that incompetence and a history of corruption would damage relief efforts. Tancredo said a House committee should administer federal aid.
CHENEY TO ASSESS RELIEF EFFORTS
President Bush says he’s sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region today to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can.
MEXICO SENDING CREWS TO HELP
Mexico, long on the receiving end of U.S. disaster relief, is sending a hurricane-aid convoy carrying water-treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies. The convoy was expected to cross into U.S. territory early today, President Vicente Fox’s office said.
