The death toll from Hurricane Katrina could rise into the thousands in New Orleans alone, the city authorities believe, in what United States President George Bush described as ”one of the worst national disasters in our nation’s history”.
The US government declared a public health emergency along the devastated Gulf Coast as the scale of the disaster became apparent, and fears grew that disease could spread in the stagnant water.
After flying low over the shattered region in Air Force One, Bush said: ”We’re dealing with one of the worst national disasters in our nation’s history. This recovery will take a long time. This recovery will take years.”
In New Orleans, initial attempts by army engineers failed to plug gaps in two of the city’s dykes that had been breached by the storm. The sandbags dropped into the holes from helicopters were washed away, allowing more water to flow into the city. Preparations were under way on Wednesday to drop shipping containers filled with rubble.
Major General Don Riley of the army corps of engineers said that once the damaged levees are repaired, it could take nearly a month to get the water out of the city.
Another huge operation was under way to rescue 25 000 people who had taken refuge in the city’s Superdome sports arena. It was surrounded by water and conditions were said to be becoming unbearable. Nearly 500 buses were reported to be en route to New Orleans to move the displaced people from the Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, about 560km away.
But thousands more homeless people were wandering New Orleans streets on Wednesday night, unable to get into the Superdome or leave the city. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin issued a stark warning of the scale of the unfolding disaster.
”We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water” and others were dead in attics, the mayor told The Associated Press. Asked how many, he said: ”Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands.”
He added that there will be a ”total evacuation of the city … The city will not be functional for two or three months.”
About 80% of New Orleans remained under water as emergency workers warned of the dangers posed by the bodies of people and animals, spilled chemicals and oil that floated through streets.
Terry Taylor, a teenager who had been wandering the streets for more than 24 hours looking for shelter, said: ”There were dead people floating everywhere you looked.”
The Bush administration declared a public health crisis.
”We are gravely concerned about the potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases that could come as a result of the stagnant water and the conditions,” Mike Leavitt, the Health and Human Services Secretary, said.
Louisiana’s Governor, Kathleen Blanco, said there is no choice but to clear out.
”The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in shelters. It’s becoming untenable.”
The Pentagon began mounting one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in US history. Four navy ships were sent to the Gulf coast with supplies of drinking water and other emergency equipment.
The chaotic scenes in New Orleans were exacerbated by outbreaks of looting. Police said there were dozens of carjackings by survivors trying to leave town or obtain supplies. A rescue helicopter was fired on, a state official said.
Officials were appalled that people were exploiting the disaster to loot rifles from gun stores, jewels from the tourist shops in New Orleans’s French Quarter and money from abandoned one-armed bandits in the wrecked floating casinos of Biloxi further up the coast.
Bush’s declaration that Katrina is an ”incident of national significance” frees additional aid and allows greater coordination between government departments.
”The challenge is an engineering nightmare,” Blanco said of the moves to hold back the flood waters round Lake Pontchartrain. She made Wednesday a ”day of prayer” to ”calm our spirits” and gave thanks on behalf of those who had survived.
Survivors had their stories to tell.
”Oh my God, it was hell,” said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as flood waters rose in New Orleans.
”We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos,” she told The Associated Press.
Rescue workers and individuals carried out risky operations to pluck survivors from rooftops. Those who have lost their homes will be housed on cruise ships, in mobile-home camps, in tent cities and by the American Red Cross, which on Wednesday said it had 40 000 people in shelters. It has been the organisation’s biggest operation in a history of more than 120 years, a spokesperson said.
Looting continued in parts of New Orleans where deserted shops offered a tempting target. Although Louisiana officials warned that looters would be dealt with ruthlessly, young men scooped up items from electrical-goods stores in full sight of officials and television crews. One looter shot a police officer in the head.
”There are gangs of armed men moving around the city,” said Terry Ebbert, the city’s homeland security chief. Looters had even tried to break into the children’s hospital, the governor’s office said.
Across the three most affected states — Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — more than a million people are without electricity and many are without clean drinking water. Among the worst-hit areas are Biloxi’s Quiet Water Beach apartments, where it is estimated 30 people were swept to their deaths.
At Charity hospital in New Orleans, as the emergency generator ran out of fuel, nurses hand-pumped ventilators for patients who could not breathe and doctors used canoes to get supplies from neighbouring hospitals.
Questions of whether the authorities could have done more to prepare for the catastrophe and whether the emergency provision against terrorism has led to the dangers of natural disasters being ignored will have to wait while the battle to find the missing continues and attempts are made to avert further disaster from spilling over the flood walls. — Guardian Unlimited Â