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New Orleans nearly dry
02/10/2005 11:58 - (SA)
New Orleans - The Army Corps of Engineers pumped many of the remaining floodwaters out of the city on Saturday as tens of thousands of residents continued returning to dry neighbourhoods to check on houses and reopen businesses.
Water was still being pumped out of the heavily flooded lower Ninth Ward. Officials expected the pumping to be completed by Sunday.
"There will still be some isolated pools here and there that aren't drained that will have to be pumped out individually," said Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson George Stringham.
Police reported few problems as tens of thousands of residents poured into the city on Saturday, a day after Mayor Ray Nagin reopened some neighbourhoods.
"Residents are very patient," police Captain Marlon Defillo said. They "understand the conditions of the city and they are co-operating."
He said there have been no problems with a curfew, and there have been only about a dozen arrests in the past few days, mostly for minor offences such as trespassing.
Nearly 1 500 New Orleans police officers are patrolling city streets in 12-hour shifts. Officials still are getting help from other law enforcement agencies and the military.
"They are welcome as long as they want to stay to assist this department," Defillo said.
There were still 3 400 members of the National Guard in the New Orleans area, said Captain Jim Roth, a spokesperson from the Air National Guard in South Carolina. The troops were participating in security patrols, water testing, water distribution and other duties.
Electricity had been restored to about 28% of New Orleans and about 98% of Jefferson Parish, said Amy Stallings, a spokesperson for Entergy Corp Electricity is still out in all of nearby St Bernard Parish, but a destroyed transmission line was being repaired, Stallings said.
In another sign that life was returning to the city, the historic St Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter planned to celebrate Sunday Mass - its first since Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans more than a month ago.
Also on Saturday, a human body was found floating outside a nursing home in St Bernard Parish. The owners of St Rita's have been charged in 34 deaths, but it was not immediately clear whether the corpse was that of another nursing home resident, parish spokesperson Steve Cannizaro said.
As of Friday, the state health department reported 932 deaths in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi's death toll was 221.
- AP
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