Water pressure

Officials cite high bacteria, toxin levels found in floodwaters to encourage holdouts to leave New Orleans

This story was reported by MARTIN C. EVANS and JENNIFER SMITH in New Orleans, RIDGELY OCHS in Mississippi and TINA SUSMAN in New York | It was written by Susman and supplemented with wire service reports.

September 8, 2005

Despite warnings they were in the midst of a "contaminated soup," thousands of stalwarts yesterday were resisting New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's order to abandon the flooded city, and nobody was forcing them out.

The Environmental Protection Agency for the first time disclosed what it had found in the water that poured across the city after Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29: at least 10 times the acceptable levels of sewage-related bacteria, including potentially lethal E. coli. Gas, oil, lead and other toxins were bound to be swirling through the inky, corpse-infested waters, officials warned, that continued to cover about 60 percent of New Orleans.

Emily Harris, 29, one of the holdouts, said if the government convinced her that toxins in the water were a danger, she might leave. So far, Harris said she wasn't convinced. "We don't need to live in an Army camp. ... Everyone is telling us different things," she said.

For those who did evacuate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency - under pressure for the slow start of the relief effort - announced that many could receive debit cards to help them get back on their feet. FEMA chief Michael Brown said the unprecedented plan would make a $2,000 card available to each household, ideally those who lacked insurance or other means of support.

"The concept is to get them some cash in hand which allows them, empowers them, to make their own decisions about what do they need to have to start rebuilding," Brown said. Also, the White House announced that President George W. Bush had asked lawmakers to approve an additional $51.8 billion to cover the costs of federal recovery efforts for the entire Gulf Coast, on top of $10.5 billion approved last week.

While Washington looked long-term, officials on the ground, from Louisiana to Mississippi, had more immediate concerns: how to persuade New Orleans' holdouts, estimated at 10,000, to leave without using strong-arm tactics; how to prevent disease from spreading throughout the region; and finding anyone who might still be alive in the ruins.

"We're looking for that one miracle out there," said Joe Spraggins, chief of emergency services for Mississippi's Harrison County. The county includes the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, both of which were reduced to flattened piles of wood and cement.

Search and rescue boats continued to pull residents, especially the elderly, from their homes in flooded areas around New Orleans, said Dean Meira, a deputy from New Mexico's Bernalillo County, who was out on a boat in the Thalia neighborhood Tuesday night.

"In some houses people are dead," Meira said. "You can smell it."

Parts of the city where tourists once flocked stood as quiet as its unique above-ground graveyards. Vast sheets of copper ripped from a roof by the hurricane's winds lay twisted and crumpled in the sun outside the French Market, like forgotten party streamers.

At the intersection of Gallier and St. Claude Avenue, across from boarded-up Bywater Hospital, police cars stood axle deep in foul-smelling waters that reflected a blue sky.

Though the waters of Lake Pontchartrain were no longer seeping into New Orleans, the levee breaches were only partially fixed, and it is expected to take three months to drain the city of what the U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona described as a "contaminated soup."

Dire as such forecasts were, they weren't enough to clear everyone from the city, and police said they had no date to begin enforcing Nagin's evacuation order.

"I've got to stay here, because it's all I've got," said Michael Campbell, 50, a cook and handyman whose house was on a dried-out street and who was keeping an eye on the homes of neighbors who had evacuated.

As he spoke, a generator hummed in the background, powered by fuel syphoned from cars whose owners, Campbell said, had given him permission.

On one dry street, five men idled in the morning sun, drinking beer and Coke. Moments earlier, they had cooked a skillet breakfast of grits and eggs on a propane stove in the street. Though they had no water or power in their homes, they said they saw no reason to leave a city they said had brought them such joy.

Even with the holdouts, about 1,000 new evacuees continue to be processed daily at a site near the Convention Center.

"The people I've spoken with realize they're kind of at the limit," said Lt. Commander Robert O'Byrne, a Navy officer working with a mental health support team processing the evacuees.

Almeta Miller said she and her son, Samuel Williams, who suffers from asthma, had remained in their home in deteriorating conditions until Samuel, 10, stepped on a nail. "I can't stay here. My house is unliveable," she said after finally giving up yesterday.

Five men, friends who had shared pork chops while riding out the storm, wore white bandanas that read "Survivor."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, stopping by to offer encouragement, acknowledged that trying to force evacuations would be difficult.

"I can't predict what's going to go on," she said. "We have to take it day by day."

Developments at a glance

The mayor of New Orleans ordered the city's remaining residents, estimated at 10,000, to leave, but how to enforce this remained in question. Police and rescue workers urged people to leave for their own safety, but did not use force.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency said the water covering 60 percent of New Orleans was contaminated with 10 times the safe level of sewage-related pollutants. "If you haven't left the city yet, you must do so," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned.

Federal officials said evacuees would be eligible for $2,000 debit cards to help kick-start their recoveries.

President Bush asked Congress to approve an additional $51.8 billion in recovery assistance, on top of the $10.5 billion already approved.