Troops pouring in with aid
Scant resources and fears of violence strain relief workers
NEW ORLEANS -- National Guard troops poured into this storm-staggered city yesterday as smoke fouled the air, corpses piled up in morgues, and bitter residents said President Bush was merely acknowledging the obvious when he said the US response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation was not adequate.
Four days after the killer storm roared ashore, the swath of destruction still seemed otherworldly and the emergency response to it continued to lag.
Sporadic gunfire was still heard in pockets of the city. About 100 patients and 900 staff members at Charity Hospital, the city's largest public hospital, were stranded because relief workers feared violence would thwart their rescue. Bodies piled up in a flooded underground morgue.
At the downtown hospital, medical staff administered saline and intravenous nourishment to one another as food and water supplies dwindled to almost nothing.
''People will continue to die," said Don Smithburg, chief executive of the Louisiana State University hospital systems. ''Our heroic staff just can't continue to keep on keeping on."
An explosion at a warehouse rocked New Orleans before daybreak, and a second large fire erupted downtown in an old retail building in a dry section of Canal Street, deepening the sense of collapse in the city. Basic information about how many died in the wake of Katrina, how many remain stranded, and when the full force of national disaster relief efforts would take hold was impossible to obtain. A bus carrying survivors away from New Orleans overturned, killing one person and injuring several others.
Federal disaster officials were on the defensive about a response that many assailed as too sluggish.
''It was beyond our immediate capabilities, for sure," said William Lokey, federal coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. ''I'll probably be lying awake a long time second-guessing, thinking about how we might have done things differently."
President Bush, who toured the battered Gulf Coast yesterday, promised to do better.
''What is not working right, we're going to make it right," said Bush, who decried the looting and crime in New Orleans. ''We are going to restore order in the city of New Orleans."
The National Guard vowed to build its force here to 7,000 by today to help police quell lawlessness, distribute food and water, and rescue those still trapped by the merciless flood waters. Federal officials pledged on Thursday that 1,400 new troops would arrive daily for the next several days.
''We are coming to save Louisiana's citizens," said Lieutenant General Steven Blum, who heads the US National Guard.
But some officials said the federal government has botched the job, calling its response so far as too little, too late. Even as the troops began arriving, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin blasted the slow pace of the relief effort, warning in a statement to CNN that ''the people of our city are holding on by a thread."
Flanked by a group of Louisiana legislators in Baton Rouge, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a massive airlift to augment the evacuation. He said if the storm had hit wealthier and whiter areas, the response would have been different.
''We seem to adjust more easily to black pain," Jackson said.
Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, called the response ''an operational failure," and said he had implored Bush to commit active-duty troops to restore peace and help the hurting.
''We need significant boots on the ground for relief and security," Vitter said. He predicted the death toll ''will start at 10,000 -- but that's just a guess." Vitter said the region needs 40,000 troops immediately -- by tomorrow -- to relieve the suffering that he said continues unabated. ''We need to get there, and we need to get there quickly," Vitter said.
When Bush appeared later in the day at New Orleans's airport with Governor Kathleen Blanco, Nagin, and other officials, there were no outward signs of the simmering anger over the federal response. ''We have a strong people, a determined people," Blanco said. ''And with your help, we're going to rebuild."
Representatives from the battalion of federal officials dispatched here said the recovery effort, while slumbering, is gaining momentum.
Helicopters continued to dump massive, 3,000-pound sandbags and stones to repair breached levees. The Superdome was expected to be fully evacuated by last night.
Brigadier General Robert Crear of the US Army Corps of Engineers said he expected the city's flood waters to be pumped out within 80 days. But officials have said it will be months before they know how much of the city will be inhabitable again.
In downtown New Orleans yesterday, dozens of Humvees filled with National Guard troops with food and water arrived at the convention center around midday, greeted ecstatically by a few thousand victims, many of whom had been at the site for five days. Guardsmen set up six food and water lines within minutes of arriving. Although plans were being made to evacuate the convention center, officials warned it may take more time before evacuations begin because the first priority is bringing in food and water.
At least three bodies were covered by white sheets at the site. Whatever food the people around the convention center had found had been taken from the dozens of looted stores and markets nearby. ''If you don't take it on yourself to kick in doors to feed your family, who will do it?" said Derek Dabon, 29, of eastern New Orleans.
Many of the homeless had resigned themselves to what they portrayed as a litany of broken promises of help. ''I ain't gonna die here!" said Marion Shiloh, 51.
Before the National Guard arrived, the only fixed security at the convention center consisted of six police officers who had been stationed across the street since Sunday. Before President Bush pronounced disaster relief efforts unacceptable, Lieutenant General Blum described a massive airlift to get troops and supplies in place to stabilize a deadly, chaotic situation that has boiled far beyond anger and frustration.
He could not explain why, four days after Katrina's fury, evacuees still lingered in squalor and lawlessness still reigned in some corners of New Orleans.
''Some people are not exhibiting the best of humanity," he said.
New Orleans officials said Bush was merely acknowledging the obvious, when he said relief efforts had fallen short. In some instances, they said, police officers have run out of food and water and have been forced to work without relief.
''He admitted it -- finally," said Oliver Thomas, president of the seven-member New Orleans City Council, who said the South has too frequently been viewed as a stepchild to the political establishment in Washington. ''We're like their stepchildren. We're good ol' boys and girls down here, and we get treated as such."
Thomas said the electronic images that have ricocheted around the world this week -- pictures of looting and wanton violence -- have projected an image of the city that does not adequately sketch New Orleans's more humane and courageous side.
''The violence is overexaggerated. The widespread chaos hasn't happened yet," Thomas said. ''It will happen if we don't get the water and the food in here."
Meantime, the convoy of buses carrying survivors to dry land, has been too slow, other officials said.
''It's World War whatever-you-want-to-call-it," said Karen Carter, a state representative from New Orleans. ''It's time to commandeer Greyhound. This is a wonderful city. If you want to save it, give us some buses and gas."
Blum, the National Guard chief, said the number of aircraft dedicated to the relief effort was growing by the hour. But he said there are not enough resources to guarantee peace.
''There are not enough police and soldiers to be everywhere all of the time," he said. ''We are concentrating our forces where the need is the greatest."
Blum appeared to be choked with emotion when questioned about the rising death toll and stories of bodies floating along the swollen streets of New Orleans.
''These people, their heartstrings are torn," he said. ''Nobody wants this. One is too many. We realize that. One unnecessary loss of life is too many."
On a day of finger-pointing, blame, frustration, anger, and despair -- there was also hope.
''We will come back because a city is not buildings," said City Councilor Cynthia Willard-Lewis. ''A city is people and spirit and heart. And New Orleans will rise again."
''I'm not crying anymore," Thomas, her council colleague, said in agreement. ''I'm ready to start rebuilding." 