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New Orleans on road to recovery
12/09/2005 10:41 - (SA)
New Orleans - Workers were picking up trash on Sunday, a small miracle under the circumstances. The airport opened to cargo traffic. A bullhorn-wielding volunteer led relief workers in a chorus of Amazing Grace.
Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, the day was marked by signs that hopelessness was beginning to lift in this shattered city.
"You see the cleaning of the streets. You see the people coming out," said the volunteer with the bullhorn, Norman Flowers. "The people aren't as afraid anymore."
Flowers, deployed by the Southern Baptist Convention, stood in the bed of a pickup truck on Canal street, leading police, firefighters and relief workers in song, punctuated by the exuberant honk of a fire truck nearby.
Slowly but surely making progress
"This is a sign of progress," said New Orleans resident Linda Taylor, gesturing at the impromptu gathering. "Last Sunday, I couldn't find any church services. This Sunday, people have gathered together to worship."
Numerous residents were able to visit their homes for the first time, however briefly, as floodwaters receded and work crews cleared trees, debris and downed telephone poles from major streets.
President George W. Bush planned to fly to New Orleans on Sunday. On Monday, he planned to tour the devastated town of Gulfport, Mississippi.
The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopened for cargo traffic on Sunday, and limited passenger service was expected to resume on Tuesday, said airport director Roy Williams.
Williams said he expects about 30 departures and arrivals of passenger planes a day - far below the usual 174 - at the airport, where a week ago terminals became triage units and more than two dozen people died.
Retrieving bodies, pumping water
Authorities contiued to recover bodies. Teams pulled an unspecified number of bodies from Memorial Medical Centre, a 317-bed hospital in New Orleans that closed after being surrounded by floodwaters.
Trash collection began over the weekend, a service unimaginable in the apocalyptic first days after Katrina's fury battered the Gulf Coast and broke holes in two levees, flooding most of New Orleans.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin was asked on NBC's Meet the Press whether New Orleans could stage Mardi Gras in February 2006. "I haven't even thought that far out yet," he said.
But he added, "It's not out of the realm of possibilities. It would be a huge boost if we could make it happen."
Nagin declined to say when the city might be drained of floodwaters.
"But I always knew that once we got the pumps up, some of our significant pumps going, that we could accelerate the draining process," he said. "The big one is pumping station six, which is our most powerful pump, and I am understanding that's just about ready to go."
The city's main wastewater treatment facility will be running by Monday, said sergeant John Zeller, an engineer with the California National Guard.
- AP
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