'Time to let the citizens in'

2005-09-29 20:52

New Orleans - The federal official in charge of Hurricane Katrina recovery on Thursday backed the New Orleans mayor's repopulation plan, saying "it is time to let the citizens in".

One month after Katrina forced most of the city's half million people to flee, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen said residents should be allowed to at least check on their properties, as long as they are warned about the risks.

"Sooner or later the people have to come in and be able to have some kind of an assessment of what's happened in their home," Allen said.

"It's time to let the citizens in and see what the status of their homes are," said Allen, who had previously urged caution in allowing residents back into the city.

Mayor Ray Nagin invited business owners to return on Thursday to the least flooded areas of New Orleans, which has been drained of water except for the impoverish Lower Ninth Ward in the east side.

He said residents of the French Quarter and other downtown neighborhoods could come back on Friday, while the remaining residents - except those from the Lower Ninth Ward - could return October 5.

Lower Ninth Ward remains off limits

"Come in, inspect your property, if you want to stay, you're free to stay," Nagin said. "We're also allowing people to come in to look and leave, and those areas will be the areas that are flooded."

The Lower Ninth Ward remains "off limits," Allen said.

The neighbourhood was flooded after Katrina broke a canal wall and had been nearly drained when Rita sent waves over the patched up levee.

Across the Mississippi River from the beleaguered ward, residents of the least affected neighbourhood of Algiers, which escaped the floods, have been allowed to return since Monday.

But returnees are being handed fliers warning them they are returning to the city "at your own risk".

Officials have urged the elderly and children to stay clear.

Returning residents "need to be advised, first of all, that schools will not be operating and that there are certain threats to public health they have to keep in mind," Allen said.

"We feel it's a permissive environment for those folks to come in and assess their houses and start putting the pieces of their life back together," he said.

He added the city had agreed to an evacuation plan which made it "Okay to go forward" with the city's resettlement.

Nagin wanted to start repopulating his city last week but was forced to suspend his program as Hurricane Rita swirled across the Gulf of Mexico. That storm largely spared the city, except the impoverished Lower Ninth Ward which suffered fresh flooding on Saturday.

- SAPA