New Orleans Superdome evacuated

2005-09-04 09:17

New Orleans, Louisiana - A massive air and bus evacuation has cleared all Hurricane Katrina survivors from inside the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Centre where they had been huddled in squalid conditions.

Military and police officials here said groups of up to 2 000 survivors at a time were however still grouping at the two sites as they were being used for bus departures.

"Nineteen thousand people have been moved out of the convention centre," said Brigadier Michael Flemming of the Florida National Guard, speaking in New Orleans.

The Superdome arena has also been emptied, he said.

Authorities said earlier Saturday that 42,000 people had now been evacuated from the devastated city, a figure that rose higher on Saturday, but up to date figures were not available.

At the start of the operation military brass believed there were between 60 000 and 80 000 people that needed to be rescued.

But they still do not have a fix on exactly how many more people there are in New Orleans that need to be taken out.

- AFP