Signs of hope amid dread

As waters start to recede, New Orleans mayor warns of 'awful' sights that will 'wake the nation up again'

This story was reported by JOHN RILEY in New York, and by MARTIN C. EVANS, JENNIFER SMITH and J. JIONI PALMER in New Orleans and written by Riley | It was supplemented with wire reports.

September 7, 2005

With troops patrolling the streets and pumping stations drawing down water levels in New Orleans yesterday, Mayor Ray Nagin said his city was starting to "turn the corner" but warned that receding waters would reveal a gruesome toll of decomposing corpses in the muck left behind.

"It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," said Nagin during a television interview eight days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans, setting off a week of suffering, death and lawlessness.

Nagin yesterday issued an emergency proclamation calling on all law officers and military members to begin using force, if necessary, to compel all civilians to leave New Orleans.

In Washington, President George W. Bush readied a budget request that would bring Katrina relief to $50 billion. The Senate planned hearings to begin as early as next week on the disaster, while Bush promised an investigation into why thousands were stranded without food or water most of last week and a substantial National Guard force didn't arrive until Friday.

But Bush, who has visited the disaster zone twice amid harsh criticism of him for the weak federal response, also said finger-pointing should come second to relief and recovery efforts. Federal officials initiated a plan to issue debit cards to pay disaster assistance to evacuees and scrambled to address issues like schooling for thousands of displaced children.

"One of the things people want us to do here is play the blame game," Bush said after a meeting with his cabinet. "We've got to solve problems. There will be ample time to figure out what went right and what went wrong."

Elsewhere, however, criticism was unabating. On the streets of New Orleans, police officers complained that they still didn't have enough bottled water. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said the job of Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown would be on the line. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) called for an independent commission to study whether FEMA was too focused on terrorism.

Aaron Broussard, president of the shattered New Orleans suburb of Jefferson Parish, called for heads to roll. "Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area," he said yesterday on CBS. " ... Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

In one sign of progress cited by Nagin, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that four of New Orleans' 21 pumping stations and several more in adjacent parishes had begun operating, beginning to push water out of the city for the first time since the storm hit.

Sixty percent of the city, down from 80 percent a week ago, is submerged. But the corps said that it would take 24 to 80 days for all the water to be removed. "We're working every avenue we can," said New Orleans district chief engineer Walter Baumy.

Authorities estimated that, in the wake of mass evacuations over the weekend, fewer than 10,000 people remain in New Orleans. Search and rescue missions continue, but many of those still in the city don't want to leave, and efforts are about to turn to collecting the dead. The government has set up a mass mortuary near New Orleans.

Reporters on the scene in New Orleans yesterday described it as a hot, mostly empty city, populated by dozens of stray dogs and cats roaming the streets, a horde of official vehicles, fires raging out of control and billowing smoke because firefighters didn't have the water pressure to fight them, and helicopters criss-crossing the skyline with loads of water.

Those left behind found themselves in an increasingly surreal setting. Monday night, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arrested a man for shooting at rescue helicopters. Yesterday, as rescuers Terry Palmisano and Barry Blanchard cruised through the Uptown neighborhood looking for survivors in their fan-boat, the two men shuddered as a dead body floated by.

"The first couple of days we were jumping in the water up to our chests to pull people out," said Palmisano. "But now you don't know what's in there. I want to help, but I don't want to die."

On an Interstate 10 overpass, Lt. Bryant Winninger, a 30-year police veteran, gestured at the murky waters and questioned the bravado of some politicians who say the city will rise again. "I'm tired of people saying they're going to rebuild again," he said. "It's a toxic wasteland."

And in the Bywater district, a pit bull battled pigeons for garbage while a cluster of human survivors in an encampment on the porch of a hair salon across the street finished MREs - or meals ready to eat - provided by relief workers and discussed whether to stay or go. Anthony Washington, his eyes red and with a sore festering on his lip, wasn't sure. "This is a disaster," he said. "But we are more or less blessed because we are alive."

Developments at a glance

With a major levee break finally plugged, engineers begin to pump out flooded New Orleans.
Mayor Ray Nagin says the city "was starting to see some significant progress," but warns numerous bodies will be found.
President George W. Bush and Congress pledge separate investigations into the federal response; $50 billion in aid is planned.
Vice President Dick Cheney heads to the Gulf Coast region tomorrow to assess efforts.
Florida's Atlantic coast is under a tropical storm watch as the area is expected to get drenched with 5 to 10 inches of rain starting this morning.