New Orleans – More stragglers seemed willing to flee the filthy water and smell of death Thursday as increasingly insistent rescuers made what may be their last peaceful pass through swamped New Orleans before using force.
“Some are finally saying, ‘I’ve had enough,”‘ said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Michael Keegan. “They’re getting dehydrated. They are running out of food. There are human remains in different houses. The smells mess with your psyche.”
Across a flooded city where as many as 10,000 holdouts were believed to be stubbornly staying put, police made it clear in orders barked from front porches and through closed doors that they would return – next time, getting tough.
Police said they were 80 percent done with their scan of the city for voluntary evacuees, after which they planned to begin carrying out Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s order to forcibly remove remaining residents.
The job of carrying out the mayor’s order was left largely to the 1,000 remaining members of New Orleans’ beleaguered police force.
“We are not going to be rough,” said Police Chief Eddie Compass. “We are going to be sensitive. We are going to use the minimum amount of force.”
The near-conclusion of the voluntary evacuation came as receding floodwaters revealed more decomposing corpses.
Nagin has said the death toll in New Orleans could reach 10,000, and state officials had 25,000 body bags available.
Volunteer rescuer Gregg Silverman, part of a 14-boat contingent from Columbus, Ohio, said he expected to find many more survivors in his excursion through the city’s flooded streets.
Instead, he found mostly bodies.
“They had me climb up on a roof, and I did bring an ax up to where a guy had tried to stick a pipe up through a vent,” Silverman said.
“Unfortunately, he had probably just recently perished. His dog was still there, barking.
“The dog wouldn’t come. We had to leave the dog just up there in the attic.”
As for other bodies his group encountered: “Obviously we are not recovering them.
“We are just tying them up to banisters, leaving them on the roof.”
At St. Rita’s nursing home in the town of Chalmette, authorities struggled to identify as many as 30 residents who may have died.
Bryan Patucci, coroner of St. Bernard Parish, said the nursing home staff apparently believed it was more dangerous to move the residents than keep them at the building.
He said it may be impossible to identify all the victims until authorities compile a final list of missing persons.
Bush says he’ll work to speed federal aid
President Bush said Thursday that he would work with Congress to “cut through the red tape” and get federal aid as fast as possible to people whose lives had been disrupted.
“The government is going to be with you for the long haul,” Bush said in a brief speech at the White House as he tried to counter charges that his administration had reacted slowly and ineffectively to the crisis.
The president said that Sept. 16 would be designated a national day of prayer and remembrance.
Bush said that the $2,000 per family in aid that had already been announced would be sped up, and that workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross were working to get the money into the hands of those who needed it.
He said around 400,000 families had already registered with FEMA, and that people were taking calls around the clock at the agency.
Bush said people who fled the storm-affected areas and consequently might have little or no identification would be given “special evacuee status” to make them eligible for the full range of federal benefits – Medicaid, food stamps, school lunch programs and aid to needy families – more quickly and without the usual paperwork.
The president said he and Congress would also see to it that the states that took in people fleeing the Gulf region would be reimbursed for the extra burdens on their budgets.
10,000 jobless file for benefits, Labor says
The Labor Department reported that roughly 10,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits last week after losing their jobs as a result of the storm, and said the level would rise sharply.
Analysts said Thursday’s number would have been higher, but the storm forced claims offices to close and prevented more of the newly jobless from filling out paperwork.
Looking ahead to the massive reconstruction, Bush waived sections of a federal law that require payment of prevailing wages on government contracts.
Prevailing wages are based on surveys that take into account union and non-union pay.
AFL-CIO president John Sweeney called it exploitive, saying the president was “taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of a protection for workers the corporate backers of the White House have long wanted to remove.”
Congress quickly OKs $51.8 billion for relief
Acting with extraordinary speed, Congress approved an additional $51.8 billion for relief and recovery on Thursday.
“We’re not asking for a handout, but we do need help,” said Sen. Trent Lott – whose home state of Mississippi suffered grievously from the storm – as lawmakers cleared the bill for Bush’s signature less than 24 hours after he requested it. Bush signed the bill Thursday night. He praised Congress for “moving swiftly and in strong bipartisan fashion to approve these additional emergency funds.”
The overwhelming, bipartisan support for the measure – it passed 411-10 in the House and 97-0 in the Senate – masked murmurs of concern about a rapidly rising price tag. All of Colorado’s delegation voted for the bill except Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo.
Congressional Democratic leaders said they would refuse to appoint members to a committee that Republican leaders intend to appoint to investigate the administration’s readiness and response to the storm, preferring an independent panel like the Sept. 11 commission.
Republicans said they intended to proceed anyway.
The White House said $50 billion of the $51.8 billion bill would be distributed through FEMA, which has been the subject of widespread criticism.
The official breakdown said $23.2 billion was for housing aid and grants to individuals, of which about $640 million was for the unprecedented debit cards.
State and local governments are in line for $7.7 billion in reimbursement costs.
