Police Step Up Evacuation of New Orleans
Sep 07 5:04 PM US/Eastern
By SHARON COHEN
AP National Writer
NEW ORLEANS
Using friendly persuasion backed by the threat of force, police and soldiers went house to house Wednesday to try to coax the last 10,000 or so stubborn holdouts to leave storm-shattered New Orleans because of the risk of disease from the putrid, sewage-laden floodwaters.
"A large group of young armed men armed with M-16s just arrived at my door and told me that I have to leave," said Patrick McCarty, who owns several buildings and lives in one of them in the city's Lower Garden District. "While not saying they would arrest you, the inference is clear."
A frail-looking 86-year-old Anthony Charbonnet grumbled as he locked his front door and walked slowly backward down the steps of the house where he had lived since 1955.
"I haven't left my house in my life," he said as soldiers took him to a helicopter. "I don't want to leave."
Mayor C. Ray Nagin ordered law officers and the military late Tuesday to evacuate all holdouts _ by force if necessary. He warned that the combination of fetid water, fires and natural gas leaks after Hurricane Katrina made it too dangerous to stay.
In fact, the first government tests confirmed Wednesday that the amount of sewage-related bacteria in the floodwaters is at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety levels. And health officials said at least four people may have died of a waterborne bacterial infection circulating in Katrina's floodwaters.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned stragglers not to even touch the water and pleaded: "If you haven't left the city yet, you must do so."
As of midday, there were no reports of anyone being removed by force. And it was not clear how the order would be carried out.
Active-military troops said they had no plans to use force. National Guard officers said they do not take orders from the mayor. And even the police said they were not ready to use force just yet. It appeared that the mere threat of force would be the first option.
"We have thousands of people who want to voluntarily evacuate at this time," Police Chief Eddie Compass said. "Once they are all out, then we'll concentrate our forces on mandatory evacuation."
Mindful of the bad publicity that could result from images of weary residents dragged out of their homes at gunpoint, Compass said that when his officers start using force, it will be the minimum amount necessary.
"If you are somebody who is 350 pounds, it will obviously take more force to move you than if you are 150 pounds," the chief said.
The stepped-up evacuation came as workers trying to get into the city to restart essential services came under sniper fire. More than 100 officers and seven armored personnel carriers captured a suspect in a housing project who had been firing on workers trying to restore cell phone towers, authorities said.
"These cell teams are getting fire on almost a daily basis, so we needed to get in here and clean this thing up," said Capt. Jeff Winn, commander of the police SWAT team. "We're putting a lot of people on the street right now and I think that we are bringing it under control. Eight days ago this was a mess. Every day is getting a little bit better."
The police chief boasted that 7,000 more military, police and other law officers on the streets had made New Orleans "probably the safest city in America right now."
Across miles of ravaged neighborhoods of clapboard houses, grand estates and housing projects, workers struggled to find and count corpses sniffed out by cadaver dogs in the 90-degree heat. The mayor has said New Orleans' death toll could reach 10,000. Already, a temporary warehouse morgue in rural St. Gabriel that had been prepared to take 1,000 bodies was being readied to handle 5,000.
The enormity of the disaster came ever-clearer in neighboring St. Bernard Parish, which was hit by a levee break that brought a wall of water up to 20 feet high. State Rep. Nita Hutter said 30 people died at a flooded nursing home in Chalmette when the staff left the elderly residents behind in their beds. And Rep. Charlie Melancon said more than 100 people died at a dockside warehouse while they waited for rescuers to ferry them to safety.
The floodwaters continued to recede, though slowly, with only 23 of the city's normal contingent of 148 pumps in operation, along with three portable pumps.
Because of the standing water, doctors were being urged to watch for diarrheal illnesses caused by such things as E. coli bacteria, certain viruses, and a type of cholera-like bacteria common along the warm Gulf Coast.
Patricia Kelly was driven out of her home by flooding in the low-lying Ninth Ward and took up residence under a tattered, dirty green-and- white-striped patio umbrella in front of an abandoned barber shop. Despite the warnings, she refused to leave.
"We're surviving every day, trying to tolerate the situation by the grace of God. He's keeping us holding on just one day at a time," she said. "I'm going to stay as long as the Lord says so. If they come with a court order, then we'll leave."
Sgt. Joseph Boarman of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, whose soldiers helped coax people from their homes, said he could almost understand the reluctance to leave: "It's their home. You know how hard it is to leave home, no matter what condition it's in."
Dolores Devron lashed out in anger as soldiers led her and her husband, Forcell, out of their flooded home.
"There are dead babies tied to poles and they're dragging us out and leaving the dead babies. That ain't right!" she screamed, waving her arms as she was directed onto a troop carrier truck.
In the high and dry French Quarter, 48-year-old Jack Jones said he would resist if authorities tried to force him out of the home where he has lived since the 1970s.
While the streets were strewn with garbage, rotting food and downed power lines, Jones kept his block pristine, sweeping daily, spraying for mosquitoes and even pouring bleach down drains to kill germs.
Jones said the sick, the elderly and people who lack supplies should be evacuated _ but not folks like him. He has 15 cases of drinking water, a generator, canned ravioli, wine, coffee and three cartons of Marlboros.
"I've got everything I need," he said. "I just want to be left alone."
At the Superdome, which became a symbol of Katrina's misery after it was left in tatters by both the storm and some 30,000 refugees, managers said no decision has been made on whether to repair the building or tear it down.
It could cost at least $100 million to repair the stripped roof and other damage, but $500 million to $600 million to demolish the structure and start over.
Damn...those ers working in that nursing home would wish they had stayed and drowned if they did that to someone in my family...
It's not going to be a pretty sight when those pictures get out. They can ban all the cameras they want (I heard that's what they are doing) but the mandatory physical evacs are going to look bad on film. Even if they ar doing it for the right reasons.
That's a good idea about AquarenaI can dive there, and one of my good friends is a Ph.D marine bio candidate that spends every weekend there.
We could probably work out something to take them down there. Thanks for the idea.
Pretty funny article 2Blonde. I particularly like this caption of the rescue helicopter pic..
"FEMA representatives call out to survivors, "Show us your s for emergency rations!"
That was the local police that asked .. not FEMA.. there where no FEMA people on the site at the time that occured.Pretty funny article 2Blonde. I particularly like this caption of the rescue helicopter pic..
"FEMA representatives call out to survivors, "Show us your s for emergency rations!"
Stop streching stuff.. keep it in politics if it's tin foil.
Between here and the political forum......
But I love this place!
what are you choosing?
WTF!? We've been told the Elation is taking over for the Ecstasy.
Yeah, we did feel like an ass calling but it's not like they knew who we were.
She should have read the fine print on the contract when she paid.
still bull ...
It is bull dude. I was just pulling a Clandestino©.
It is bull dude. I was just pulling a Clandestino©.haha.. you for making me spit on my computer.
You were eating ?
"i eat little pieces of like you for breakfast!"
uh..... It never occurred. The Onion is satire fool
Sounds like one of the loote... err, um, whatever the Jesse Jackson wants me to call them - victims of the white man? - ended up in Utah...
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3007110
They weren't spoken up for? I'm shocked
What if a CAT 5 hits Aransas bay then it could be a cat 1-2 by the time it hits San Antonio..
Didn't they said that the damn in Alamo Heights could break? Or Medina dam?
Neither of those damns are in danger of breaking due to winds. They are too low.
At least I would imagine so.
I still subscribe to the Onion. It's huge in Madison, naturally. Their post 9/11 coverage was great.
yeah, two of my favorite headlines were...
'Area Man Not Exactly Sure When To Take Down American Flags"
and
'Highjackers Surprised To Find Themselves In '
"I was promised being fed by virgins, instead I am fed the boiling feces of traitors..."
"I was promised being fed by virgins, instead I am fed the boiling feces of traitors..."
Now I have to look up that article. I forgot the boiling feces part.
WTF?
The mayor of New Orleans wants everyone out due to the hazardous water situation. Just now they had the governor on saying "well, there is no evacuation until the governor - and that would be me - says so, and I don't say there is yet."
What a ing .
It's a strange (and deadly) combination to be both a control freak and an incompetent jackass. And on top of all her other BS, she publicly undermines the mayor. How the did this woman get into a position of leadership?
I can't wait til she gets roasted.
Flood and winds... a perfect storm can drop a lot of rain... I think I did hear them talking about those 2 dams as almost busting after the last big flood.
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