Explosions rang out and fires blazed early on Friday in south-western New Orleans, as authorities battled to restore order after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, United States television reported.
There was no immediate report of casualties or word on the cause of the blasts that erupted along the Mississippi riverfront.
MSNBC said at least one of the explosions occurred in a chemical plant outside the city’s historic French Quarter. But it quoted officials as saying there were no toxic fumes released.
CNN said authorities dispatched a hazardous-materials team to the area.
The explosions provided a new element of panic to the battered city hours before US President George Bush was to inspect damage from the hurricane that left thousands feared dead.
Fox News, meanwhile, reported that a fire had broken out at an oil-storage facility in New Orleans.
News agency Deutsche Presse Agentur reported that a severe explosion in a train depot prompted fears of a major chemical leak in the already stricken city.
Clouds of thick smoke billowed over the city at daybreak, with flames from the blast site visible some kilometres distant, the agency said.
Tens of thousands of displaced people remain in the city without food, electricity or basic sanitation following severe flooding in the wake of Monday’s category-four Hurricane Katrina.
A day before the visit by Bush, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, telling a local radio station ”they don’t have a clue what’s going on down here”.
Federal officials expressed sympathy but quickly defended themselves, saying they, too, are overwhelmed by the catastrophe.
Bush’s planned visit is aimed at alleviating criticism that he engineered a too-little, too-late response.
Bush viewed the damage while flying over the region on Wednesday en route to Washington after cutting short his Texas vacation by two days.
”They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP (Associated Press) reporters, all kind of goddamn — excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed,” Nagin said.
Nagin said he told Bush in a recent conversation that ”we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice … I have been all around this city and that I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we are outmanned in just about every respect”.
In an interview on Friday on NBC’s Today, Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown stood behind the massive federal relief effort that is under way.
”I understand the mayor’s frustration … We have been having a continuous flow of commodities into the Superdome, there were five trucks arriving last night to feed well over 50 000 people.
”We’re also diverting supplies to the convention centre, which I learned about yesterday and that area … This is an absolutely catastrophic disaster,” he said.
Governor Kathleen Blanco, who like Nagin is a Democrat, was less confrontational than the mayor.
”When the system goes down, this is pretty much what you get,” she said on CBS’s The Early Show. ”We don’t get into the blame game. We just work with what we got.”
Massive economic loss
Meanwhile, the economic loss from Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding is likely to top $100-billion, the consulting firm Risk Management Solutions (RMS) said on Friday.
RMS said at least 50% of economic loss is expected to come from flooding in New Orleans, hurricane losses from wind and coastal surge, infrastructure damage and indirect economic impact.
The estimate is separate from estimates of insured losses. RMS has projected up to $25-billion in losses covered by insurance, and other estimates have varied.
RMS, a consultant for insurers, reinsurers and other financial institutions, said the New Orleans flood ”has developed into the most damaging flood in US history”.
It said at least 150 000 properties have been flooded, topping the previous US record from flooding and levee failures on the lower Mississippi River in 1927, which affected 137 000 properties.
”The economic and insurance consequences of the 2005 great New Orleans flood will depend highly on how quickly authorities can respond to the event,” said Laurie Johnson, vice-president of technical marketing at RMS.
”The speed at which existing pumps are reactivated and additional pumping capacity is added will determine how rapidly the flood waters are removed. But this is only the first step in restoring services to flooded areas of the city,” Johnson said.
RMS said the value of physical property in the flooded areas is approximately $100-billion. It said that while the majority of property damage occurs once flood waters enter a structure, the longer the property remains inundated, the greater the damage.
RMS also estimated that the costs of interrupted economic activity exceed $100-million per day.
It said the closest parallel to the 2005 disaster is the 1953 flood in The Netherlands, which led to more than 1 800 deaths and the inundation of 47 000 properties. In that case, it took six months to pump out all the water from the flood bowl. — AFP, Sapa-DPA