Force used to evacuate New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS – Police prepared to forcibly remove stubborn hurricane survivors from New Orleans yesterday as the flood-wrecked city took its first faltering steps on the long and arduous road to recovery.

Signs of progress, including a small but noticeable drop in the floodwater level, came as President George W. Bush said he would ask for a further US$50 billion in federal funding for relief and recovery across the Gulf coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.Bush, who met with congressional leaders in Washington, also vowed to lead a probe into the government response to the disaster, which a senior Republican lawmaker criticised as “woefully inadequate”.The waters in New Orleans receded with the morale-boosting efforts of army engineers who managed to get a few of the city’s pumps up and running after closing the levee breach that triggered the flooding.Authorities say it could take close to three months to drain the city properly and Mayor Nagin warned the country to brace for some shocking images as the gruesome human cost of Katrina was fully revealed.”It’s going to be awful and it’s going to wake the nation up again,” Nagin told the NBC ‘Today’ show, a day after he estimated the number of dead could reach as high as 10 000.While morgue teams moved through the city collecting decomposed bodies, police officers and firefighters were given the green light to use force in their efforts to bring all remaining survivors from their homes and out of the city.In a new evacuation order, Nagin authorised any public safety officer “to compel the evacuation of all persons …regardless of whether such persons are on private property or do not desire to leave.”The only exceptions were people engaged by local, state or federal agencies in the relief effort.The order came as official patience ran out with some diehard Katrina survivors who rode out the storm at home and have adamantly refused to leave despite warnings of serious health risks.The holdouts have posed a problem for the authorities who do not want to be seen manhandling people who have already endured terrible deprivation since Katrina hit just over a week ago.”We want to encourage people to leave before the military takes over – they won’t be so nice in making people leave,” said police officer Clay Caywood.Amid the trauma and misery, Nagin spoke of “rays of light” returning to the New Orleans as it began to show signs of life.Convoys of supply trucks, ambulances, buses and armoured personnel carriers produced the first downtown traffic jam since Katrina struck.A few suburban streetlights came on and at least one pharmacy and several gas stations opened.But the long-term picture was still a bleak one, with officials pointing to the hurricane’s disastrous environmental legacy – a sewage system in tatters, water supplies highly contaminated and oil slicks threatening wildlife.”It is almost unimaginable the things we are going to have to plan for and deal with,” said Mike McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.Bush, meanwhile, remained on the defensive over his administration’s handling of Katrina, amid widespread criticism that it was slow to speed troops and relief supplies after the storm hit on August 29.The president said after a cabinet meeting that the situation boded ill for the country’s preparedness to deal with any terrorist attack.- Nampa-AFPBush said he would ask for a further US$50 billion in federal funding for relief and recovery across the Gulf coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.Bush, who met with congressional leaders in Washington, also vowed to lead a probe into the government response to the disaster, which a senior Republican lawmaker criticised as “woefully inadequate”.The waters in New Orleans receded with the morale-boosting efforts of army engineers who managed to get a few of the city’s pumps up and running after closing the levee breach that triggered the flooding.Authorities say it could take close to three months to drain the city properly and Mayor Nagin warned the country to brace for some shocking images as the gruesome human cost of Katrina was fully revealed.”It’s going to be awful and it’s going to wake the nation up again,” Nagin told the NBC ‘Today’ show, a day after he estimated the number of dead could reach as high as 10 000.While morgue teams moved through the city collecting decomposed bodies, police officers and firefighters were given the green light to use force in their efforts to bring all remaining survivors from their homes and out of the city.In a new evacuation order, Nagin authorised any public safety officer “to compel the evacuation of all persons …regardless of whether such persons are on private property or do not desire to leave.”The only exceptions were people engaged by local, state or federal agencies in the relief effort.The order came as official patience ran out with some diehard Katrina survivors who rode out the storm at home and have adamantly refused to leave despite warnings of serious health risks.The holdouts have posed a problem for the authorities who do not want to be seen manhandling people who have already endured terrible deprivation since Katrina hit just over a week ago.”We want to encourage people to leave before the military takes over – they won’t be so nice in making people leave,” said police officer Clay Caywood.Amid the trauma and misery, Nagin spoke of “rays of light” returning to the New Orleans as it began to show signs of life.Convoys of supply trucks, ambulances, buses and armoured personnel carriers produced the first downtown traffic jam since Katrina struck.A few suburban streetlights came on and at least one pharmacy and several gas stations opened.But the long-term picture was still a bleak one, with officials pointing to the hurricane’s disastrous environmental legacy – a sewage system in tatters, water supplies highly contaminated and oil slicks threatening wildlife.”It is almost unimaginable the things we are going to have to plan for and deal with,” said Mike McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.Bush, meanwhile, remained on the defensive over his administration’s handling of Katrina, amid widespread criticism that it was slow to speed troops and relief supplies after the storm hit on August 29.The president said after a cabinet meeting that the situation boded ill for the country’s preparedness to deal with any terrorist attack.- Nampa-AFP