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Departures in the Gulf: Some willing, some not

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

September 9, 2005

It wasn't the water that got to Hezron Williams or the rank, swampy smell or the lack of supplies or the corpses in the streets or the orders from the mayor to leave. It was the bugs.

"The flies and the mosquitoes were crazy," said a haggard Williams, 48, carrying a 1-year-old in his arms and trailed by his wife, two older children and a few knapsacks as he boarded an evacuation plane yesterday at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport. "Thousands and thousands of them. I've never seen anything like it."

On a day when 14 bodies were reported found in a city hospital, Louisiana officials said they had readied 25,000 body bags to collect the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Congress approved $51.8 billion in new aid for the catastrophe, Williams was one of a steady stream of the Crescent City's last holdouts who voluntarily joined the nationwide diaspora of what was once a city of 500,000.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin has ordered the use of force, if necessary, to empty New Orleans of people, following findings that floodwaters are contaminated with E. coli bacteria and other hazards. Police and federal authorities said yesterday that they were still having success persuading stragglers like Williams to finally leave, but would soon move from persuasion to coercion in their next sweep through the city.

"We are not going to be rough," said Police Chief Eddie Compass. "We are going to be sensitive. We are going to use the minimum amount of force."

In Washington yesterday, the Bush administration moved to blunt rancorous criticism of its indecisiveness in the first week of the disaster. President George W. Bush, in an address to the nation, read out telephone numbers for survivors to call for assistance, promised immediate financial help in the form of a $2,000 debit card to be issued to evacuees, said access to programs like Medicaid would be eased, and declared Sept. 16 a national day of prayer and remembrance.

He also dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast, where he received a mixed reception during touchdowns in Gulfport, Miss., and New Orleans. While many residents were friendly, one man shouted an expletive at Cheney and a woman criticized him during a walk-through of a well-off waterfront neighborhood in Gulfport.

"I think this media opportunity today is a terrible waste of time and taxpayer money," said Lynne Lofton, whose house was destroyed. "They've picked a nice neighborhood where people have insurance and most are Republicans."

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday found that 42 percent of Americans say the federal response to the disaster was "bad" or "terrible." Only 13 percent blamed Bush personally.

Here and there along the Gulf Coast, there were signs of recovery. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said that power would be restored in his state by Sunday. The Army Corps of Engineers announced that the ports of Mobile, Ala., and Pascagoula, Miss., were completely operational.

In Louisiana, officials said pumping stations to clear New Orleans of water were now operating at 25 percent capacity. In adjacent St. Bernard Parish, water levels have dropped 5 feet and many roads are open; military and police checkpoints have been established to limit access to work crews and accredited media. The postal service said it had collected 15,000 Social Security checks for area residents and would somehow get them to evacuees.

But on the streets of the city, the scene remained dismal. The city was filled with the smell of decay and rot, stagnant oily water and dead bodies. Firefighters struggled with 11 more fires, and late in the day authorities found 14 corpses inside an abandoned Memorial Hospital. Helicopters buzzed overhead and the roar of chain saws cut the air as troops and repair crews worked to clear roads.

From the side streets came shouts of "Police" and the sound of boots stomping glass as squads of National Guardsmen and city cops conducted block-by-block searches for remaining residents. "We're looking for open doors, windows that weren't open yesterday," said Staff Sgt. Ted Billups of the National Guard's Alpha Company 179 as it scoured the Uptown neighborhood under a blazing sun. "Looking for a smell that might be a body."

For now, soldiers are telling whoever they encounter to leave voluntarily, or they will be taken out by force later. They said they expect orders today or tomorrow to become more forceful. Most who insist on staying tend to be poor, elderly or concerned about leaving pets behind, Billups said.

Many stragglers, like Williams at the airport, are finally heeding evacuation notices and leaving, toting luggage and plastic bags of food. "I didn't want to go," said "Poncho" Reed, 47, a diminutive man who the guard unit had been checking on for a few days. "They told me to go."

Reed asked the National Guardsmen to look after his Chihuahua, Munchkin. Then, he left behind an entire sliced ham for the dog until it could be rescued, before striding up the street to catch a Humvee ride to an evacuation point.