As another storm looms, New Orleans halts reentry
Warned by US about weak levees, mayor advises evacuating again
NEW ORLEANS -- The mayor, citing the potential threat of a tropical storm gathering strength off the coast of Florida, yesterday suspended his plan to allow people to return to the city neighborhoods largely unscathed by Hurricane Katrina and urged those who had come back to evacuate again.
Since Saturday, business owners had streamed back to the French Quarter and other sections of central New Orleans where there had been little flooding, and yesterday the first returning residents arrived in one riverside neighborhood under the phased repopulation plan of Mayor C. Ray Nagin. He reversed course after President Bush expressed concern about the possibility that new flooding could be caused by Tropical Storm Rita, expected to hit southern Florida today, and threaten more lives.
''Our levee systems are still in very weak condition," Nagin said at an afternoon news conference. ''I'm encouraging everyone to leave."
With Rita several days away from any hit on the Gulf coast, the first-term mayor ordered the immediate, mandatory evacuation of neighborhoods on the east bank of the Mississippi River, which is most of the city, and asked residents who had returned to the west bank to depart by tomorrow. Officially, only business owners had been allowed back into east bank neighborhoods. Nagin said he was calling for a second evacuation of the mostly uninhabited city ''so we can make sure we have everybody out."
In Washington yesterday, Bush said he contacted Nagin to warn about Rita and the lingering environmental risks in the reopened neighborhoods. The official in charge of the federal recovery effort in Louisiana, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, had urged Nagin over the weekend to reconsider allowing people to return.
''If it were to rain a lot, there is concern from the Army Corps of Engineers that the levees might break," Bush said. ''There is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in New Orleans."
Tropical Storm Rita was expected to dump 6 to 10 inches of rain on Florida, and then move into the Gulf of Mexico -- potentially as a Category 3 hurricane, according to the National Weather Service. Current projections indicate the storm could hit the Texas coast or, less likely, Louisiana, as early as Thursday, though the course of tropical storms and hurricanes are unpredictable.
Nagin said rainfall of nine inches or more or a storm surge of three feet or more could cause severe flooding in New Orleans because the levees damaged by Katrina have not been completely restored to the previous strength, though the breaches have been patched. The mayor indicated he was particularly concerned about the part of the city between the east bank of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, a section that encompasses the French Quarter and all but one of the neighborhoods that had been scheduled to be reoccupied in the next week.
A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed that heavy rains and a storm surge would devastate the city.
''The levees right now in their currents status are not going to be able to deal with any significant storm surge," said Gene Pawlick, the spokesman. ''The big risk is really heavy rain in a short amount of time."
As of Sunday, 30 of the city's 175 water pumps were removing water; another 100 were operable but off because they were in dry areas. In addition, 42 portable pumps were at work, with five more available if needed. The city was once 80 percent flooded, but by yesterday it was only 15 percent covered by water, Pawlick said.
Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, in a televised address yesterday, urged residents of coastal southwest Louisiana to make preparations to leave. More evacuees would strain the shelters in Texas, so she urged people to head for central and northern Louisiana instead.
Over the weekend, Allen had asked Nagin to halt his plan to allow about 37 percent of the city of 480,000 residents to return to about 17 percent of its geographic area. In stating his cautions, the admiral acknowledged the mayor was ultimately in charge of making that decision.
Nagin yesterday emphasized his authority as the city's elected executive.
''The admiral is a good man," Nagin said. ''I respect him but when he starts to talk to the citizens of New Orleans that is kind of out of his lane. There is only one mayor of New Orleans and I'm it."
It was one of a number of times since Katrina hit on Aug. 29 that local and federal officials have disagreed about what to do.
The only phase of the reentry plan that was allowed to continue was the return of thousands of residents to the Algiers neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi, where 57,000 lived before Katrina hit. Morning traffic was backed up as vehicles headed into the working-class enclave, where there was little flooding but wind damage some structures.
Many returning residents inspected damage to their homes, then left. But others decided to stay put despite problems with drinking water, roads, and crime.
''I'm like Dorothy on the 'Wizard of Oz.' No place like home!" said Percy Jackson, 49, who found his house near the riverbank mostly intact. He said he would bring his family, evacuated to Arkansas, back later this week. ''I was sleeping on a full-size [mattress], but now I'm coming back to a king size."
Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World, famed maker of floats and paraphernalia for the city's annual bacchanal, was converted into a food pantry, with members of the 82d Airborne Division handing out bags of ice and volunteers giving returnees sacks of donated groceries.
Karen Pryor, 40, surveyed the offerings, then inquired aloud: ''Any cleaning supplies?"
She said her home, which she had just examined for the first time since fleeing to Georgia before the hurricane, was filled with mold. She plans to move back in soon, but her husband will continue to work at his new job in Georgia, and her 16-year-old son will attend school there.
''Why stop their progress?" she said, adding that they might return in six months. Pryor said her drive into Algiers in the morning was shocking: ''I saw dead animals on the street. The smell was terrible. . . . It brought tears to my eyes."
Ramsey Washington, 33, and Leon Trufant, 55, sat drinking a morning beer in their front yard, having just mowed the lawn. They were seeing the two-story house they share for the first time since the storm and found extensive roofing damage.
''We can't stay in it now. I've got little kids," said Washington, whose family was staying with friends in Oxford, Miss.
''It's going to be months before we can get in," Trufant said.
But both vowed to return to Algiers. ''I'm coming home one of these days," Washington said.
Welmon Barrie, 82, said he never left Algiers. He said that he had been drinking tap water for weeks despite the availability of bottled water at a nearby Red Cross post.
''I like the tap water. I'm used to it," said Barrie, who added that he did not get sick from the water.
Federal officials said the Louisiana death toll had climbed to 736.
But the day also brought welcome surprise: Rescue crews found a 39-year-old man alive in the heavily flooded Ninth Ward. Federal officials said he might have survived by eating food that National Guard members had left for his dog.
Staff writer Beth Daley contributed to this story from Baton Rouge. Material from the Associated Press was used. 