Katrina: Fresh troops arrive
2005-09-02 21:59
New Orleans - Fresh troops poured in here on Friday, scrambling to reverse a tide of anarchy unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and to bolster relief efforts that President George W Bush acknowledged were unacceptably slow.
The reinforcements arrived as authorities laboured to evacuate thousands of survivors from the city, swamped when Katrina struck on Monday, leaving thousands feared dead.
Bush was told on Friday that Hurricane Katrina had destroyed at least 350 000 homes in the Gulf Coast region and left 500 000 to 1 million people in need of new housing.
Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, briefed him in Alabama.
Death toll could top 10 000
Bush had said earlier this week that he anticipated it would take years to rebuild, and local officials said refugees would not be able to return to their home areas for at least six months.
A United States senator said on Friday that the toll could top 10 000.
A senior army officer said the number of troops deployed in New Orleans would be nearly doubled by late on Friday to 7 000, patrolling alongside hundreds of civilian police also moving in.
Lieutenant-General Steven Blum said: "I am confident, that within the next 24 hours we will see a dramatic improvement" in the security situation.
National guardsmen were deployed at strategic intersections, and armed personnel carriers patrolled the streets as teams of hostage negotiators, narcotics agents and SWAT commandos also poured in.
20 000 people waiting for rescue
Helicopters with searchlights hovered during Thursday night, while emergency cars moved bumper to bumper into the historic southern city.
Efforts to evacuate survivors progressed slowly with the Superdome sports stadium finally being emptied on Friday morning of up to 20&nbps;000 people who had spent days in sweltering squalor, waiting for rescue.
Overnight gunfire and pre-dawn explosions heightened the panic in New Orleans, where tens of thousands remained trapped, amid foetid floodwaters, rotting corpses, armed gangs and troops with shoot-to-kill orders.
There was no word on casualties or the cause of blasts, including one that erupted at a chemical storage depot, near the French Quarter.
Gunbattles, rapes
Flames at a fast-food restaurant threatened to burn down a neighbouring hotel.
Survivors of Katrina's fury recounted horrific tales of bodies piling up, gunbattles, fistfights, rapes, car hijackings and widespread looting since the storm struck on Monday.
Officials stepped up their criticism of Washington's failure to speed troops and relief to the greater New Orleans area, where up to 300 000 people were still believed stranded.
The US government was sending four mobile morgues to the area struck by Hurricane Katrina.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Friday that one unit was working in Louisiana and the other three were en route or in staging areas.
- AFP