New Orleans – Mayor Ray Nagin invited residents of some of the city’s most popular neighborhoods to return at their own risk beginning today, a move that could bring back about one-third of New Orleans’ half-million inhabitants.
The newly opened areas, including the French Quarter and Garden District, all escaped major flooding in a city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina a month ago before receiving a second blow from Hurricane Rita last week.
Business owners began showing up Thursday, some saying they were pulling out and others vowing to rebuild.
“We are lucky. I was expecting much worse than this,” said Germame Kassa, whose Ethiopian grocery and deli was relatively unscathed, although the stink of rotting food wafted through the locked doors. “One way or the other, we’ll be back in business.” The mayor was pushing aggressively to reopen the city despite concerns raised by state and federal officials. Serious health hazards remain because of bacteria-laden floodwaters, a lack of drinkable water and a sewage system that still does not work, said Stephen L. Johnson, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“There are a whole lot of factors that need to be weighing on the mayor’s mind,” Johnson said. He said the EPA was not taking a position on Nagin’s plan, but he refused to answer when asked if he would allow his own family to return to New Orleans.
At Igor’s, a pub and coin laundry in the Garden District, owner Halina Margan returned after Katrina and never left, despite Rita’s threat last week. She was ready to open for business on Thursday.
“It’s lonely here. We need people,” she said.
State officials say at least 140,000 homes and businesses across southeastern Louisiana were so badly damaged that they must be torn down. The storms also left 22 million tons of debris, including 350,000 cars and trucks, said Mike McDaniel, chief of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
“Just as the nation knew that we had to create economic greatness in New York City after 9-11, the nation and the world needs south Louisiana,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in seeking federal tax breaks, incentives and grants to rebound.
Even as residents were to begin pouring back into New Orleans, the police department said it was investigating a dozen officers accused of looting during the lawlessness that engulfed the city after Katrina.
“The investigation does in fact show police officers with some items,” acting Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Thursday.
He said four of the 12 officers have already been suspended for failing to stop looting.
“It was not clear that they in fact looted,” Riley said of the four. “What is clear is that some action needed to be taken and it was not.” Riley drew a distinction between taking useful items such as food and jeans, which he contended didn’t amount to looting in a crisis, and taking luxuries such as jewelry. He suggested that arresting looters was difficult amid the chaos following the storm.
“Minor offenders, it was determined, we could not in fact arrest them,” he said.
Incidents in which officers took Cadillacs from a dealer’s lot were not looting because the officers patrolled in the cars, said Riley, who was appointed to the job this week after his predecessor resigned. However, Riley said authorities were looking into whether the officers had driven the cars illegally.
“There were some officers who did use Cadillacs,” Riley said.
“Those cars were not stolen.” Katrina’s death toll in Louisiana rose to 923 on Thursday, up from 896 the day before, the state health department said.
