Aid, but little comfort

Guardsmen deliverdesperately needed supplies, but refugees and officials say it is too little, far too late

This story was reported by KATIE THOMAS in New Orleans, CYNTHIA DANIELS in Mobile, Ala., and TINA SUSMAN in New York | It was written by Susman and supplemented with wire reports.

September 3, 2005

National Guardsmen finally hit the seething streets of New Orleans Friday, and efforts to clear Hurricane Katrina survivors from the uninhabitable city appeared to gain momentum. But progress was matched by new obstacles that underscored what many said was an inexcusably sluggish response by the Bush administration.

Fires blazed downtown, untended by firefighters with no working hydrants. Texas relief centers were overwhelmed. In a cruel twist, a bus ferrying survivors to a new shelter overturned after a passenger grew agitated and ended up in a struggle with the driver. At least one person was killed and more than a dozen injured.

Criticism of the government's handling of the relief operation grew, from desperate people still foraging for supplies on trash-covered streets - many still flooded - to Washington, where Republicans and Democrats joined a chorus of condemnation. At a news conference, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and the Urban League accused the administration of simply not caring about the mainly poor people stranded in New Orleans.

"Men, women and children, our fellow countrymen have now gone days - days - without food and far too long without clean water and medical attention. They are surrounded by flood waters littered with dead bodies and human feces," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a member of the Black Caucus. "To the president of the United States, I simply say that God cannot be pleased with our response."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN his people were "holding on by a thread." Earlier, in a radio interview, he erupted in tears and anger at federal officials, saying, "Get off your asses and let's do something."

President George W. Bush, who was expected to sign a $10.5-billion emergency aid package passed by Congress, set foot in the disaster zone for the first time since Katrina roared onto the Gulf Coast early Monday.

While defending the federal response, he also said, "the results are not acceptable" - a reference to looting and thuggery that had taken over much of New Orleans.

During a tour that began in Mobile, Ala., and ended in New Orleans, Bush vowed that things would improve. "I know the people of this part of the world are suffering, and I want them to know that ... we're making progress," he said while standing on the tarmac at New Orleans' airport.

"We have a responsibility to clean up this mess," Bush said earlier in Mobile, whose downtown was flooded by up to 10 feet of water but which escaped the devastation suffered in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Even so, tens of thousands of residents remained without power and the city was bracing for an influx of evacuees from areas of heavier damage.

Some, like Cecil Stiller, 48, of New Orleans, already had arrived and were being housed at one of several Red Cross shelters. "I have no home to go to. I'm homeless," he said. "I'm just having to stay strong. I'm scared and I don't know where I'm going from here." It was a lament heard over and over.

Even as buses ferried several thousand people from the Superdome and New Orleans convention center, thousands more waited in sweltering heat. Hundreds of National Guardsmen, fanned out at both sites to quell rising lawlessness and to distribute food and water, received mixed reactions from exhausted, angry crowds.

"It's a relief," said Raymond Jarreau, 48, a bus driver who had been at the convention center for days with his wife, Brenda, 43, and their two sons. His wife was less impressed. "It seemed too little, too late ... We had no help," she said.

The center was still a swarming mass of men, women, children and babies. The carpet squished underfoot and the place reeked of urine and feces. Mounds of trash festered next to sleeping children. Corpses lay by doors. People blanketed sidewalks outside and stretched out on strips of lawn, trying to escape the stench indoors.

One of them, Wade Bastiste, 48, could barely contain his anger as he gestured to the chaos surrounding him. "How you gonna send your daughters and your sons overseas when you got this right here?" he said, referring to the war in Iraq.

Sgt. First Class Robert Richards of the Louisiana National Guard said the crowd was calmer than it had been in the morning. "It's touch and go," he said while keeping a road clear for trucks bringing in troops. "You think things are great, and then the bottom falls out."

New Orleans' streets remained largely unpatrolled and resembled scenes from a futuristic horror film. Vehicles were bashed in and looted to skeletal remains. Flames blasted into the sky from occasional fires that firefighters - toting guns for self-protection - were helpless to douse.

Army engineers said Friday they had partially plugged one of the three levee breaches that had allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to swamp New Orleans after the hurricane, but hundreds of feet of gaps remained to be filled. After the levees are fixed - perhaps by Sunday - engineers say it could take three months to pump all the water out of the city, which was 80 percent inundated.

Amid such forecasts, neighboring cities were scrambling to find space for the displaced. Houston's Astrodome quickly filled up with 15,000 people, forcing officials to send newcomers to other facilities. Doctors at the Astrodome scrambled to treat refugees. "We just need help," said Dr. Steven Glorsky, who had treated people for heart attacks, open wounds and diabetes. "We have a crisis in there."

The latest developments

*Convoys and thousands of National Guard troops enter New Orleans

*Buses take evacuees from the Superdome

*President says results of the relief effort are unacceptable and visits devastated Gulf Coast

*Fires rage in New Orleans as armed firefighters stand by without water

*Thousands still crowding convention center seeking medical help

*Officials report progress in closing levee breaks