Hurricane Katrina began as a very low pressure weather system, which strengthened to become a tropical storm and eventually a hurricane as it moved west and neared the Florida coast on the evening of 25 August.




After crossing southern Florida - where it left some 100,000 homes without power - it strengthened further before veering inland towards Louisiana, eventually making landfall at Grand Isle, approximately 90km south of New Orleans, at 10am local time on 29 August.



At this point, Katrina's sustained wind speed was approximately 200 km/h. The storm passed directly through New Orleans, destroying many lighter buildings and causing extensive damage to others.

Hurricane force winds were recorded along an 200km stretch of coastline, with scenes of similar destruction and flooding in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Storm surges from the sea caused flooding several kilometres inland in some places.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/americas/05/katrina/html/default.stm

Guardsmen Halt Evacuation at Superdome

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 39 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - National Guard members halted the evacuation of the Superdome early Saturday after buses transporting the refugees of Hurricane Katrina stopped rolling. About 2,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard. They had hoped to evacuate the last of the crowd before dawn Saturday.

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Guard members said they were told only that the buses had stopped coming and to close down the area where the buses were loaded.

"We were rolling," Capt. Jean Clark said. "If the buses had kept coming, we would have this whole place cleaned out already or pretty close to it."

The remaining refugees remained orderly, sitting down after hearing the news.

Guard members reported that the operation for the most part had gone smoothly Friday. Two women had miscarriages and a few people had to be removed from the buses for drinking.

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, next to the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.

Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it is across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials.

As the evacuations continued late Friday, officials sought to comfort refugees by handing out Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water.

The conditions in the dome stayed miserable even as the crowds shrank after buses ferried thousands to Houston a day earlier. While the evacuation resumed Friday, the press of people on the bridge outside the arena was just as great as before.

Capt. Andrew Lindgren with the Air National Guard said 8,000 to 10,000 people remained in the Superdome. Most of them were jammed on the ramps leading out.

Friday's evacuations began about 9 a.m., halted for about an hour and then resumed two hours later.

Things reached such a state inside that people opted to stand on the broiling brick walkway, jammed shoulder to shoulder in temperatures that Pollard estimated had reached 125 degrees in the middle of the crowd. The sun blazed down from the cloudless sky and officials flew in a helicopter for all-too brief moments under the fan.

It didn't matter: People passed out one after another. They were carried out on tables. National Guardsmen picked them up and took them in their arms. The medical area in the nearby shopping mall was full of victims being fanned, given water. A nurse said they all were felled by the heat.

"Everyone here is doing all they can with the assets they have," Pollard said. "We just don't have the assets."

Medical help was limited. Much of the medical staff that had been working in the "special needs" arena had been evacuated. Dr. Kenneth Stephens Sr., head of the medical operations, said he was told they would be moved to help in other medical areas.

Authorities estimated they could move about 1,000 people an hour when the buses are in place.

Tina Miller, 47, had no shoes and cried with relief and exhaustion as she walked toward a bus. "I never thought I'd make it. Oh, God, I thought I'd die in there. I've never been through anything this awful."

The arena's second-story concourse looked like a dump, with more than a foot of trash except in the occasional area where people were working to keep things as tidy as possible.

Bathrooms had no lights, making people afraid to enter, and the stench from backed-up toilets inside killed any inclination toward bravery.

"When we have to go to the bathroom we just get a box. That's all you can do now," said Sandra Jones of eastern New Orleans.

Her newborn baby was running a fever, and all the small children in her area had rashes, she said.

"This was the worst night of my life. We were really scared. We're getting no help. I know the military police are trying. But they're outnumbered," Jones said.

People brought tables and chairs from restaurants and anything else they could find to make conditions a bit more livable. On one row, people had staked out their space with a row of blankets and used brooms to sweep it clean.

"We're just trying to keep a little order. It's bad. We're trying not to let it get any worse," said Michele Boyle, 41.

As for the bathrooms, "I'm trying not to eat anything so I won't have to deal with it," Boyle said.

Those who did want food were waiting in line for hours to get it, said another refugee, Becky Larue, of Des Moines, Iowa.

Larue and her husband arrived in the area Saturday for a vacation but their hotel soon told them they had to leave and directed them to the Superdome. No directions were provided, she said.

She said she was down to her last blood pressure pill and had no idea of when they'll get out or where to get help.

"I'm really scared. I think people are going into a survival mode. I look for people to start injuring themselves just to get out of here," she said.

James LeFlere, 56, was trying to remain optimistic.

"They're going to get us out of here. It's just hard to hang on at this point," he said.

Janice Singleton, a worker at the Superdome, said she got stuck in the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything she had with her, including her shoes.

"They tore that dome apart," she said sadly. "They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take."

Then she said, "I don't want to go to no Astrodome. I've been domed almost to death."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_superdome_hk1

States Struggling With Katrina Refugees



By TODD LEWAN, Associated Press Writer
35 minutes ago

HOUSTON - With a shattered New Orleans all but emptied out, an unprecedented refugee crisis unfolded across the country Sunday, as governors and emergency officials rushed to feed, clothe and shelter more than a half-million people dispossessed by Hurricane Katrina.


In Texas, where nearly a quarter-million refugees have filled the state's relief centers, Gov. Rick Perry ordered emergency officials to airlift some evacuees to other states willing to take them. Among the states that have offered help are West Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, Michigan, Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania.

"There are shelters set up in other states that are sitting empty while thousands arrive in Texas by the day, if not the hour," Perry said. "To meet this enormous need, we need help from other states."

Around the country, social service agencies, businesses, volunteer groups, military bases and other refugee shelters raced to help Katrina's multitudes find jobs, obtain their Social Security checks, receive their medicines, get their mail, locate missing relatives and pets, and enroll their youngsters in school.

"We want to get the children back in school as quickly as possible, whether they are staying with relatives, or friends or in a shelter," said Caron Blanton, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Education. Mississippi, like Alabama, Florida, Texas and other states, has pledged to open its schools to displaced children and waive normal entry requirements such as immunization records and proof of residency.

In Fort Chaffee, Ark., relief workers turned the post where Elvis Presley entered the Army in 1958 into a processing center for refugees. There, the homeless were registered by the Social Security Administration, checked by doctors and given post office boxes.

Marion Landry, 84, held onto the walker of her sister, Fay Roberts, 81, as the bedraggled pair went through the registration process. They appreciated the need for paperwork — but really wanted a shower.

"I've worn the same set of clothes for three days," Roberts said. "My hair is sweaty. I don't look like this. Normally I'm very nice."

A military base near Battle Creek, Mich., was transforming itself into a welcome station.

Up to 500 evacuees were headed for the Fort Custer Training Center, where volunteer cooks were readying meals at a mess hall. Tables were stacked with towels, toiletries, T-shirts and other clothing and essentials. Medical personnel stood by to help, and clergy and attorneys were on call.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the refugees are welcome to stay permanently, if they wish. "Michigan is going to welcome these victims, these evacuees, with open arms and show them some Northern hospitality," she said.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, at the government's request, announced a hot line and Web site for reuniting family members separated by the storm. By noon Monday, people will be able to get help at 1-888-544-5475 or at http://www.missingkids.com.

In New Mexico, Gov. Bill Richardson declared a state of emergency and released about $1 million to help victims of Katrina as the first of up to 6,000 evacuees arrived Sunday. He also relaxed certain state transportation rules to speed up the building of temporary housing for the refugees.

Refugees also began arriving in Arizona, which has agreed to take up to 2,500. They were greeted on the runway by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Several people had to be helped off the plane and down the stairway to the tarmac, where pink, yellow, teal and black flip-flops had been set out for them.

Then, carrying garbage bags, backpacks and brown shopping bags with their only belongings, the evacuees were led into the airport for physicals before boarding buses to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

"We'll take care of them," Gordon said. "We'll make sure they know that the city cares."

In Denver, Qwest Communications set up a bank of at least 50 phones at a processing center so refugees could call their loved ones. Colorado state Rep. Debbie Stafford said she was trying to arrange long-term shelter for the storm's victims, and also reunite people with their cats and dogs.

State and local officials in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and other states with a refugee influx began setting up programs to link refugees with employers. Business owners are trying to help, too.

In Richland, Miss., a fast-food restaurant hung fliers offering jobs at a shelter. A steel company sent employees to a shelter at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson to recruit new workers. And Craigslist, the Internet-based classified advertising service, was filled with job offers for victims willing to relocate.

Pene Long, who owns a spa in Richland, said she had given a stylist's job to a woman whose home in Biloxi was devastated. Long said she was going to hire nine more displaced people.

"I was getting ready to put a big ad in the paper, and I said, `Why would I do that?' There are tons of people out here looking for work," she said.

At the Houston Astrodome, evacuees were issued jeans, T-shirts, underwear, socks, hats, sneakers, sandals and other clothes, along with toiletries, aspirin, towels and other items. They were allowed to make free long-distance phone calls, courtesy of SBC Communications.

Torres Smith, 42, a machine operator at a New Orleans seafood plant before Katrina hit, was evacuated along with his wife and four children and is now sleeping on a cot in what used to be centerfield in the Astrodome.

"As far as I can tell, this is going to be our new home for a long time," he said. "I'll do anything — cut grass, wash windows, wax floors. I can't just sit around here, looking at people lying in their cots. I feel like I have to be a part of something positive."

Simon Henderson, 47, an electrician, carpenter and plumber who stepped off a refugee bus from New Orleans a week ago, is now helping out other refugees at his new residence, the Reliant Center across the street from the Houston Astrodome.

On Saturday, he helped relief workers build 16 new shower stalls. On Sunday, he was helping a team of paramedics.

"They're feeding me. They're housing me," he said, while rushing bags of batteries for blood pressure gauges and hearing aids into the center. "This is the least I can do."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050905/ap_on_re_us/katrina_refugees_hk4

AP - Sun Sep 4, 6:32 PM ET
Reginald Cressy, left, and Corionne Thompson, 5, have a pillow fight at the refugee shelter set up in Reliant Center next to Houston's Astrodome on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Reuters - Sun Sep 4, 6:21 PM ET
A man refuses to be rescued by U.S. Coast Guard swimmer Dustin Skarra at his flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana September 4, 2005. The man said it was his home and he did not want to leave it. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

AP - Sun Sep 4, 9:14 PM ET
A young boy dribbles a basketball after arriving in San Diego with a group of approximately 80 refugees from Hurricane Katrina Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005. A private citzen donated an airplane that transported 80 people consisting of approximately 15 families. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Reuters - Sun Sep 4, 9:28 PM ET
An improvised grave marks the body of a woman on a street in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 4, 2005. Efforts to evacuate the remainder of New Orleans' weary population met with some resistance on Sunday as residents in areas less affected by Hurricane Katrina refused to leave their homes and businesses. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

AP - Sun Sep 4, 8:41 PM ET
Two cars sit on top of a home surrounded by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Reuters - Sun Sep 4, 8:23 PM ET

Revelers walk through the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina September 4, 2005. weary population met with some resistance on Sunday as residents in areas less affected by Hurricane Katrina refused to leave their homes and businesses. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

New Orleans Begins Counting Its Dead

AP - 2 hours, 13 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans turned much of its attention Sunday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses. "It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine," the nation's homeland security chief warned.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/hurricanes_and_tropical_storms

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AP - Sun Sep 4, 8:46 PM ET
A car sits on the rooftop of a home surrounded by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

AFP/File - Mon Sep 5, 1:59 AM ET
American cycling hero Lance Armstrong, pictured June 2005, hopes his pledge to donate 500,000 dollars to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina will help make up for lost time.(AFP/File/Javier Soriano)

International singing sensation Celine Dion to sing ... Hurricane Katrina: Red Cross aid | NFL to donate $1 million ... 9, 2003) -- Multiple Grammy Award winner Celine Dion will sing "God Bless America" prior to Super Bowl XXXVII at ...www.superbowl.com/entertainment/story/6116425 - 60k



http://www.superbowl.com/entertainment/story/6116425

Occasional notes from a happily married Mt. Baker Geek and Cider maker... September 03, 2005. Katrina and Tallahassee. Katrina refugees must make room for Miami, FSU fans. First it was Hurricane Katrina chasing them away. ... in Tallahassee is pretty much throwing us out because of ... Actor Nicolas Cage just gave $1M to relief efforts: ...
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AP - Mon Sep 5, 3:48 AM ET
This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 at 2:45 a.m. EDT shows a dense area of clouds over the Northern Plains associated with showers and thunderstorms. Fewer clouds can be seen over the Northeast and Southeast. Clouds associated with two areas of disturbed weather can be seen east of Florida, and clouds associated with Hurricane Maria can be seen far out in the Atlantic. (AP Photo/NOAA)

La. Parish Locals Allowed to Return Home

By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
45 minutes ago



METAIRIE, La. - One week after Hurricane Katrina turned the region into a disaster of biblical proportions, miles-long lines of vehicles crawled into Jefferson Parish on Monday as residents were allowed to return for brief inspections of what's left of their homes.



The traffic began moving into the parish west of New Orleans at about 6 a.m., and officials planned to allow traffic in for 12 hours, though they encouraged residents to inspect their property, pick up personal items and leave.

Among those returning was Diane Dempsey, a 59-year-old retired Army lieutenant colonel who stopped at the water's edge less than a mile from the house where she grew up and where her aunt lives.

"I'm going to pay someone to get me back there, anything I have to do," she said, sobbing while standing amid boats beached on Veterans Highway. "A lot of these people built these houses anticipating some flood water but nobody imagined this."

Most of the single-story bungalow homes in the neighborhood had water nearly to the rooflines.

The suburban parish, which has 460,000 residents, has been closed since a mandatory evacuation just before Katrina hit. Wide portions of Metairie and Kenner suffered heavy flooding, and authorities said thousands of homes were damaged.

In New Orleans, Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday that fewer than 10,000 people remained in the city, based on aerial reconnaissance.

"This is not a city under siege," he told NBC's "Today" show. "This city needs help from the big people in America and its technology to get back on its feet. We are focused on the future. We have to finish the search-and-rescue and provide food and water from an area from Mobile (Ala.) to the east side of New Orleans, up to I-20 in Mississippi. This is a pig big piece of terrain. There are people there that need help. We will do the best we can to get it to them."

On Sunday, as authorities struggled to keep order across New Orleans, gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors on a bridge, rescues of stranded residents continued and the flood waters began to recede, leaving the grisly task of collecting bodies.

The state's largest newspaper lashed out at the federal government's response.

Federal officials urged those still left in New Orleans to leave for their own safety. Large-scale evacuations were completed at the Superdome and Convention Center.

The death toll across the Gulf Coast was not known. But bodies were everywhere: floating in canals, slumped in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways and medians and hidden in attics.

"I think it's evident it's in the thousands," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Sunday on CNN, echoing predictions by city and state officials last week.

The Times-Picayune, in an open letter to President Bush, called for the firing of every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, saying they failed to rescue thousands of citizens stranded by Katrina.

"We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry," the editorial said. "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame."

"Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially," the letter said. "No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced."

In neighboring Jefferson Parish, residents were allowed back in briefly Monday — as long as they showed a valid ID proving residency, had food, had a full tank of gas and didn't drink the water.

Parish President Aaron Broussard warned residents that they would find all traffic signals destroyed, no open stores and a dusk-to-dawn curfew. He recommended that women not come alone.

Among those returning was Jack Rabito, 61, a restaurant-bar owner, who bought his home in 1965, and like Dempsey didn't have flood insurance. "I won't be getting inside today unless I get some scuba gear," he said, waiting with Dempsey for a ride in a boat to get to his home.

Violence boiled over when 14 contractors on their way to help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal came under fire as they traveled across a bridge under police escort, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers. Police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said. None of the contractors was injured, authorities said.

Besides the lawlessness, civilian deaths and uncertainty about their families, New Orleans' police have had to deal with suicides in their ranks. Two officers took their lives, including the department spokesman, Paul Accardo, who died Saturday, according to Riley. Both shot themselves in the head, he said.

"I've got some firefighters and police officers that have been pretty much traumatized," Mayor Ray Nagin said. "And we've already had a couple of suicides, so I am cycling them out as we speak. ... They need physical and psychological evaluations."

At two of the city's damaged levees, engineers continued making repairs that would allow pumps to begin draining the floodwaters. "The water is receding now. We just have a long ways to go," Mike Rogers, a disaster relief coordinator with the Army Corps of Engineers, said Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of people already have been evacuated, seeking safety in Texas, Tennessee and other states. With more than 230,000 already in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry ordered emergency officials to begin preparations to airlift some of them to other states that have offered help.

What will happen to the refugees in the long term was not known.

Amid the tragedy, about two dozen people gathered in the French Quarter for the Decadence Parade, an annual Labor Day gay celebration. Matt Menold, 23, a street musician wearing a sombrero and a guitar slung over his back, said: "It's New Orleans, man. We're going to celebrate."

In New Orleans' Garden District, a woman's body lay at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Magazine Street — a business area with antique shops on the edge of blighted housing. The body had been there since at least Wednesday. As days passed, people covered the corpse with blankets or plastic.

By Sunday, a short wall of bricks had been built around the body, holding down a plastic tarpaulin. On it, someone had spray-painted a cross and the words, "Here lies Vera. God help us."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050905/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina

Disaster Price Tag for Katrina Balloons


By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 21 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Cost estimates for relief and recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina are running as high as $150 billion, making it clear that a federal budget deficit picture that only weeks ago seemed to be brightening has now gotten considerably worse.


In July, with great fanfare, the White House announced a $94 billion improvement in the deficit outlook for the current budget year and promised that President Bush would easily fulfill his pledge to cut last's year's record deficit in half by the time he leaves office.

The White House budget office in July was predicting that the deficit for the budget year ending Sept. 30 would drop to $333 billion, $79 billion below last year's record, and that next year's deficit would be $341 billion. Now, both figures are rising fast as the government spends about $2 billion a day on the Katrina relief effort, all of which adds directly to the deficit.

At this point, the government is spending whatever it takes. Even the most severe spending hawks say there is no other course.

"Yes, it will cost an extraordinary amount of money ... and yes, it will obviously increase the deficit significantly in the short term," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

The White House is sticking by its prediction that the deficit can still be cut in half from the $521 billion deficit once projected for last year to $260 billion by 2009. That presumes the costs of Katrina are largely absorbed in the next couple of years and don't weigh on the deficit over the long term.

"Right now we see ourselves on a continuing declining path in the deficit out over the next several years toward the 2009 goal that the President talked about," said Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten. "This kind of spending adds a challenge to us in meeting those goals, but I don't think it's a long-term challenge. I think the kind of spending we're talking about here is something that will be a concern in the next year or two, and not long run for the economy."

Some lawmakers say at least some offsetting spending cuts should be found to ease the impact of the Katrina catastrophe on the nation's books. But they are lonely voices.

"Everybody in America is going to have to sacrifice to help us rebuild the Gulf Coast," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a stout fiscal conservative. "Every government program, every individual, we are all going to have to sacrifice."

Bolten, however, says it is impractical to expect such sacrifices.

"While I applaud the sentiment, I think it's not likely to be practically realistic to plan to try to offset in other places of the budget the large emergency relief that's needed in this case," said Bolten.

Instead, as with the war in Iraq or the assistance to New York City that was passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults, the massive relief, recovery and rebuilding effort that will follow Katrina will be added straight onto the deficit instead of being financed by cuts elsewhere in the budget.

In fact, a modest effort planned for this month to cut $35 billion over the next five years from federal entitlement programs is now in doubt as lawmakers reconsider cutting programs, such as the Medicaid health care safety net for the poor, in the wake of Katrina. If anything, Medicaid spending is likely to go up.

The other half of the deficit equation is revenues. While a Senate vote to repeal the estate tax has been put off indefinitely, and planned moves to extend cuts made in 2003 to taxes on dividends and capital gains now seem less likely, lawmakers say they are now looking at tax cuts aimed at helping hurricane victims and helping the economy weather Katrina's jolt.

"We need to look at the tax code to see what might be done to help investment, to help people in need," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050907/ap_on_go_co/katrina_deficit

New Orleans Mayor Orders Forced Evacuation


By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 29 minutes ago


NEW ORLEANS - To the estimated 10,000 residents still believed to be holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: Get out now — or risk being taken out by force.

As floodwaters began to slowly recede with the city's first pumps returning to operation, Mayor C. Ray Nagin authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders to leave.

Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said that forced removal of citizens had not yet begun. "That's an absolute last resort," he said.

Nagin's order targets those still in the city unless they have been designated as helping with the relief effort. Repeated calls to Nagin's spokeswoman, Tami Frazier, seeking comment were not returned.

The move — which supersedes an earlier, milder order to evacuate made before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore Aug. 29 — comes after rescuers scouring New Orleans found hundreds of people willing to defy repeated urgings to get out.

They included people like Dennis Rizzuto, 38, who said he had plenty of water, food to last a month and a generator powering his home. He and his family were offered a boat ride to safety, but he declined.

"They're going to have to drag me," Rizzuto said.

That's a sentiment Capt. Scott Powell, of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, has heard before as he tries to evacuate people by air boat.

"A lot of people don't want to leave. They've got dogs and they just want to stay with their homes. They say they're going to stay until the water goes down," he said.

In Washington, D.C., President Bush and Congress pledged Tuesday to open separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina and New Orleans' broken levees. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine.

The pumping began after the Corps used hundreds of sandbags and rocks over the Labor Day weekend to close a 200-foot gap in the 17th Street Canal levee that burst in the aftermath of the storm and swamped 80 percent of this below sea-level city.

Although toxic flood waters receded inch by inch, only five of New Orleans' normal contingent of 148 drainage pumps were operating, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

How long it takes to drain the city could depend on the condition of the pumps — especially whether they were submerged and damaged, the Corps said. Also, the water is full of debris, and while there are screens on the pumps, it may be necessary to stop and clean them from time to time.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said lawlessness in the city "has subsided tremendously," and officers warned that those caught looting in an area where the governor has declared an emergency can get up to 15 years in prison. About 124 prisoners filled a downtown jail set up at the city's train and bus terminal.

"We continue to get better day by day," Compass said.

Some National Guardsmen and helicopters were diverted from their search missions Tuesday to fight fires, an emerging threat in a city that has no water pressure to fight fires or electricity, which has prompted holdouts to use candles.

In a plea to those who might be listening to portable radios, Nagin warned that the fetid floodwater could carry disease and that natural gas was leaking all over town.

"This is not a safe environment," Nagin said. "I understand the spirit that's basically, `I don't want to abandon my city.' It's OK. Leave for a little while. Let us get you to a better place. Let us clean the city up."

To that end, the Pentagon began sending 5,000 paratroopers from the Army's storied 82nd Airborne Division to use small boats to launch a new search-and-rescue effort in flooded sections of the city.

Some people may already be heeding the mayor's message. After surviving for days in New Orleans, Johnnie Lee MacGuire finally accepted an offer to evacuate.

"It's too filthy. Look at that — the fish is dead, you got dead dogs, you got dead people around there," the 66-year-old said.

Floodwaters also had receded from St. Bernard Parish southeast of New Orleans, but it was still a disaster scene with bedroom dressers and hot tubs scattered on roofs, toilet seats dangling in tree limbs and cars overturned in driveways. Water gurgled and spouted where natural gas seeped from below.

While New Orleans waited for the floodwaters to recede before counting its dead, the effort to accurately catalogue Mississippi's toll was struggling to keep up with the decaying effect of 90-degree heat.

Even when cadaver dogs pick up a scent, workers say they frequently can't get at the bodies without heavy equipment. That's leading officials to estimate that more than 1,000 people could be dead.

As of Tuesday night, workers had recovered 196 bodies in Mississippi, the majority coming from coastal counties. Nagin has estimated New Orleans' dead could reach 10,000.

"The state doesn't know the answer," said Lea Stokes, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. "I know people don't want to hear that, but we just don't know."

That uncertainty has led to an agonizing wait for people who are desperate to locate family and friends but cannot fathom the scope of the storm's devastation.

"We get a lot of information about New Orleans, but I don't even know how bad Alabama and Mississippi are," said Darryl Moch, 32, of Portland, Ore., who has tried for days to locate his best friend, Leon Harvey Packer, of Biloxi. "How bad was Mississippi hit? What's the number of people displaced? What's the estimated damage?"

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Mexico Sends First Aid Convoy Ever to U.S


By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 54 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - Mexican army convoys and a navy ship laden with food, supplies and specialists traveled to the U.S. Wednesday to help in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort — a highly symbolic journey marking the first time Mexico's military has aided its powerful northern neighbor.

The convoy was expected to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday evening and cross into U.S. territory early Thursday, President Vicente Fox's office said.

Radio talk shows and newspapers in Mexico buzzed with excitement over news that this country, long on the receiving end of U.S. disaster relief, was sending a hurricane aid convoy north.

The convoy represents the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846, when Mexican troops briefly marched into Texas, which had separated from Mexico and joined the United States.

It included military specialists, doctors, nurses and engineers carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens, food and blankets.

"This is just an act of solidarity between two peoples who are brothers," said Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar.

Army press office employee Francisco Aguilar said he did not have details of the convoy's precise location. It originally was scheduled to arrive in Houston to provide food for evacuees, but apparently had been rerouted to Dallas.

All of the convoy's participants will be unarmed. In July 2004, Mexican troops interrupted the funeral of a Mexican-born Marine killed in Iraq. They objected to the nonworking, ceremonial rifles carried by two Marines who came from the United States for the ceremony.

Mexico later apologized but said it has an obligation to enforce a ban on foreign troops carrying weapons in its territory.

The convoy has "a very high symbolic content," said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "This is a very sensitive subject, for historic and political reasons."

Large Mexican flags were taped to many of the 35 olive-green Mexican Army trucks and tractor trailers as they rumbled northward toward the border Wednesday.

The convoy includes two mobile kitchens that can feed 7,000 people a day, three flatbed trucks carrying mobile water-treatment plants and 15 trailers of bottled water, blankets and applesauce. The 195 Mexicans taking part include military engineers, doctors and nurses.

"This is the first time that the United States has accepted a military mission from Mexico" for such work, said Javier Ibarrola, a newspaper columnist who covers military affairs in Mexico.

The relief mission was controversial for some Mexican lawmakers, who said the president should have sought Senate approval before sending troops abroad. But the Fox administration said no such approval was needed for aid missions.

The government was planning to send a second, 12-vehicle aid convoy to the U.S. sometime this week and has sent a Mexican navy ship equipped with rescue vehicles and helicopters to the Mississippi coast.

The ship Papaloapan left the Gulf coast port of Tampico on Monday. Fox's office was unsure when it would arrive, but said it would dock about 30 miles south of Biloxi, Miss.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050907/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/katrina_mexico

AP - Wed Sep 7, 1:55 PM ET
Mexican Army soldiers stand at attention in front of their transport vehicles before resting on their first day of travel towards the U.S. border near the city of Matehuala, Mexico late Tuesday night Sept. 6, 2005. An army aid convoy carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed the victims of Hurricane Katrina will be the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846.(AP Photo/Milenio-Rocio Vazquez)

AFP/Pool - Wed Sep 7, 6:24 PM ET
A water pumping station is shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in this aerial view, in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans, Louisiana. Huge pumps are sucking up the toxic soup that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but it will take weeks to empty streets that will probably have to be razed because of the health risk.(AFP/Pool/David J. Phillip)

Police, Soldiers Work to Empty New Orleans

By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer ***10 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Using the unmistakable 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. ................

Associated Press writers Cain Burdeau, Jerry Bodlander and Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina;_ylt=AsKBbicuU1WyfFZ66soNvRjmWMcF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--

Reuters - Wed Sep 7, 5:04 PM ET

Louisiana National Guardsmen of the 256th Brigade Combat attend a briefing about their departure to New Orleans at Camp Victory, on the Iraq-Kuwait border September 7, 2005. Soldiers from a New Orleans National Guard unit will begin leaving Iraq via Kuwait Thursday to return to the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Guard officials say 80 percent of the returning force lost homes, jobs and family in the storm and flooding. REUTERS/Anja Niedringhaus/Pool

Katrina's deadly aftermath

Holdouts face new threats from toxic floodwaters

Concerns Grow About Toxic Floodwaters
AP - 19 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS - Soldiers toting M-16s strengthened their grip on this swamped city as concerns grew about the risks posed by the toxic floodwaters and officials braced for what could be a staggering death toll by readying 25,000 body bags. Across miles of ravaged neighborhoods of clapboard houses, grand estates and housing projects, workers struggled to find corpses and persuade convince the city's last stubborn residents to leave.


http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/hurricanes_and_tropical_storms

Reuters - Thu Sep 8,11:51 PM ET
Tam Tran (L, background), 73, receives aid at a collection point for victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans September 8, 2005. National Guard troops and rescue teams hunted for thousands of people unable or unwilling to leave ruined New Orleans on Thursday, with one group making the grim discovery of 30 bodies in a suburban nursing home. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Reuters - Thu Sep 8, 8:02 PM ET
Officials prepare to move bodies out of a building in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard, near New Orleans September 8, 2005. Estimates of the death toll from Hurricane Katrina have run as high as 10,000 but the actual body count so far is much lower and officials who feared the worst now hope the dire predictions were wrong. (David J. Phillip/Pool/Reuters)

AFP/Pool - Thu Sep 8, 8:38 PM ET
Floodwaters are pumped over the repaired 17th Street canal levee in New Orleans. Rescuers in New Orleans struggled to persuade diehard Hurricane Katrina survivors to abandon the city, as a political battle intensified over a probe into the federal relief effort.(AFP/Pool/David J. Phillip)

AP - Thu Sep 8, 8:33 PM ET
Only concrete slabs, broken from their pillions remain of the Bay St. Louis Bridge which connected Bay St. Louis and Henderson's Point, Miss., before the area was devastated by Hurricane Katrina on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Hurricane Simulation Predicted 61,290 Dead

By RON FOURNIER and TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writers * hour, 3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for more than a year.

These planners were not involved in the frantic preparations for Katrina. By coincidence, they were working on a yearlong project to prepare federal and state officials for a Category 3 hurricane striking New Orleans...................

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/ap_on_re_us/katrina_what_planners_feared

AP - Fri Sep 9, 9:04 AM ET

In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, Chief Aviation Warfare Systems Operator Scott Pierce, a search and rescue swimmer, looks out from the cabin of an SH-60 Seahawk helicopter at the flooded New Orleans streets caused by Hurricane Katrina, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Kristopher Wilson)