Katrina: Evacuation priority
2005-09-02 15:22
New Orleans - Rescuers scrambled buses, boats and helicopters on Wednesday to evacuate hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents threatened by rising, body-strewn waters and disease after Hurricane Katrina.
Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana state, said the authorities faced a "logistical nightmare" to recover from the devastating storm that left more than 80% of the city underwater.
While army engineers hoped to stem the waters of Lake Pontchartrain with concrete blocks and 1 400kg sandbags dropped by helicopters, officials fought to curb fires and outbreaks of looting.
Blanco said the immediate priority was to evacuate people from shelters and other spots in the city who were trapped without power, food and drinking water and communications.
Only emergency personnel should stay.
"It's become untenable," the governor told ABC television.
"We have sent buses in. We will be either loading them by boat, helicopter, anything that is necessary.
"They are trapped in the city," she said. "They can't move about that easily.
"We have a few places where it is dry. But if this water situation continues, those places will be filled with water as well."
Million evacuated
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said close to a million people had been evacuated from the city and surrounding areas before and after Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast on Monday, leaving hundreds feared dead.
But he said "a couple hundred thousand" were still trapped with the lake spilling into the low-lying city after an effort to plug a breach in a major levee failed Tuesday and pumps gave out.
Nagin told ABC the flooding was not the only concern as he was also worried about bodies in the water.
"At some point in time, the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious disease issue."
The once-bustling southern jazz mecca offered an almost surreal watery landscape on Wednesday, an eerie silence punctured only by the whirr of helicopters above and the occasional hum of a electric generator.
Compassion
People scrounging for food and cigarettes streets roamed ever-diminishing areas of dry land, including the famed French Quarter.
Shops were smashed by looters; some were gutted by flames.
One woman, her mouth covered with a face cloth, wailed at a television crew, "Can you have a little compassion?" and asked only one question: "How do we get out of here?"
Nagin said the waters flooding into the low-lying city "will rise to try and equal the water level of the lake, which is 1m above sea level.
"That's significant, because on St Charles Avenue, one of our most famous avenues, it is 2m below sea level in elevation.
There will be 3m in that area, and probably 7m in other areas of the city," he said.
Logistical nightmare
Nagin said it would be 12 to 16 weeks before residents could return to the city, an assessment echoed by Blanco.
"We don't know the integrity of the buildings," she said. "But it is going to be weeks, perhaps months."
"It is a logistical nightmare for us to just bring water and food supplies in. The stores can't function, you know. It is a miserable situation," the governor said.
Chris Accardo, deputy head of the army corps of engineers in New Orleans, was unable to say when the gaps on the broken levee would be filled and the pumps working again.
"It is going to take a long while," he told CNBC television.
Nagin said an array of agencies was providing relief, including wildlife and fisheries officials with over 100 rescue boats.
He said the national guard was on the scene and mustering another 3 000 troops.
But the mayor also signalled co-ordination problems.
"We have command centres that are spread out in different locations," he said.
"This morning, we're going to bring all our command centres together so that we can get all the varying opinions in one room and start to work in synergy."