Katrina: Fewer deaths possible

2005-09-09 23:35

Don Babwin

New Orleans - Authorities said on Friday that their first systematic sweep of New Orleans had showed up far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina's death toll may not be the catastrophic 10 000 feared.

Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief, said: "I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps; that some of the catastrophic death tolls that some people predicted may not have occurred."

Ebbert declined to give a new estimate of the dead.

Authorities shifted their attention to counting and removing the dead in a grid-by-grid search.

They had spent days persuading and cajoling the living into leaving the shattered city because of the danger of fires and disease from the filthy, corpse-laden floodwaters.

The sweep was carried out by the police department, the army's 82nd Airborne division and the national guard, and covered every part of the city reachable by land, boat or air, Ebbert said.

25 000 body bags ordered

"Numbers so far are relatively minor, compared to the dire projections of 10 000," said Ebbert.

Mayor Ray Nagin had suggested at the weekend that the death toll could climb that high, and authorities ordered 25 000 body bags as they started gathering up the dead across a landscape awash in corpses.

In a small sign of progress, authorities said the New Orleans airport would reopen to commercial flights on September 19. Caldwell said water and power are functioning at the airport.

Authorities continued trying to clear the city of holdouts, and also confiscated guns from homeowners.

Police and soldiers feared deadly confrontations with jittery residents who had armed themselves against looters.

"Walking up and down these streets, you don't want to think about the stuff that you're going to have to do, if somebody pops out around a corner," said national guardsman Chris Montgomery.

As many as 10 000 people were believed to be stubbornly staying put in the city, despite orders from the mayor earlier this week to leave or be removed by force.

Police are "not going to do that until we absolutely have to. We really don't want to do that at all," said deputy chief Warren Riley said.

The floodwaters are slowly receding, but the task of gathering rotting corpses and clearing debris is certain to take months.

400 000 homes without power

Decaying corpses in the floodwaters could pose problems for engineers who are desperately trying to pump the city dry.

While 37 of the 174 pumps in the New Orleans area were working and 17 portable pumps were in place on Thursday, officials said the mammoth undertaking could be complicated by corpses getting clogged in the pumps.

About 400 000 homes in the city were still without power, with no immediate prospect of getting it back. And fires are continuing to be a problem.

- AP