Life-or-death struggle continues in New Orleans

This man found refuge on top of a van in the flooded streets of New Orleans. He was airlifted out by the US Coast Guard helicopter soon after. Picture / Reuters

It remains a life-or-death struggle on the sodden streets of New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

The missing

Brendan Clifford-Walsh's family are starting to worry. The last time they heard from the Aucklander was nine days ago, when he was told to leave his New Orleans hotel because Hurricane Katrina was approaching.

"We are being evacuated to the Superdome, or we'll have to get there, about 20 blocks away," he wrote in an email to his nephew, Chris Walsh.

"Good job I did some shopping yesterday," he added. "The water might be a problem."

Mr Clifford-Walsh, father-in-law of former All Black Bernie McCahill, finished the email by wishing his family love. "I'm going to send this now as I don't know how long the electricity might last."

Mr Clifford-Walsh, 65, has not responded to emails since.

Earlier, he described the chance to see the storm as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience". His nephew said the comment was typical of a man who had lived an adventurous life and for whom they initially felt little concern.

"We were fairly optimistic that Brendan being Brendan, he would just be relishing the experience," said Mr Walsh. But by yesterday, they were beginning to fear for his safety.

Mr Walsh said his uncle emailed with stories from his trip, and it was unusual he had not written about the hurricane.

But Mr Clifford-Walsh's brother, Sean Walsh, said: "He's a warrior ... he's a survivor."

And Mr Clifford-Walsh's daughter, Melanie McCahill, added: "He's a well, well, well-seasoned traveller."

The repairs

Engineers are working flat out to repair levees and drain New Orleans, where water levels are still 2.4m deep in places.

Breached embankments must be filled, to let water flow out. After the water level has fallen and electricity is restored, the engineers will crank up the 22 pumping stations serving a city which has expanded below sea level over decades.

Oil prices have eased to almost pre-Katrina levels, prompting a call by the Automobile Association in New Zealand for motorists to receive early relief at the pumps.

Brent crude has fallen almost US$3 ($4) a barrel to $64.89 ($91.73) since late last week, after an agreement by International Energy Agency states to kick in emergency stocks.

AA spokesman Greg Hunting said last night that the speed at which oil suppliers hiked up fuel prices by 5c a litre last week, lifting standard grade 91-octane petrol to $1.529, should be matched by an early cut now that world crude was easing.

But officials at Caltex, Shell and Gull said there was no sign yet that prices of refined fuel from Singapore were similarly easing, although they were keeping them under review.

Although New Zealand suppliers insist they follow a global policy of setting retail prices by the immediate replacement cost of fuel, Mr Hunting said petrol was selling in Canberra yesterday for the same A$1.25 ($1.35) a litre it had cost motorists for several weeks.

The refugees

About 16,000 refugees are receiving food and shelter in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and thousands more are in shelters in neighbouring states.

Airlifts are planned to take evacuees as far as Iowa and New York.

In Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, relief workers turned the post where Elvis Presley entered the Army in 1958 into a processing centre for refugees.

Buses began moving the 30,000 evacuees stranded for days in a New Orleans convention centre amid mounds of trash and human waste.

At the city's Louis Armstrong International Airport, babies waiting to be airlifted slept on flattened cardboard boxes. Rescue teams scoured homes and toxic waters flooding streets to find survivors and recover thousands of bloated corpses.

Nursing homes, some of which were among the last facilities to be evacuated, began tallying their dead.

At St Rita's Nursing Home, 31 of 80 frail residents perished before rescuers could get to them.

The Coast Guard asked anyone still stranded "to hang brightly coloured or white sheets, towels or anything else" to help rescuers locate them.

A helicopter crashed during the effort but the two crew survived.

Some residents are refusing to leave.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the entire city would have to be evacuated.

"We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city."

The violence

New Orleans police shot dead four looters and critically wounded one in a gun battle.

Officers said they fired after they came under attack.

In another incident, United States Army Corps of Engineers contractors working on a levee breach were fired on by gunmen, but no one was hurt. The shooting took place while 14 contractors were crossing the Danziger Bridge.

Despite the violence, authorities are slowly regaining control after a wave of looting, murders and rapes. A total of 54,000 military personnel are now committed to relief efforts, including around 40,000 National Guard.

Among those on duty is Deputy Patrick Dooley of the Rusk County (Texas) Sheriffs Department, pictured above watching over a vacant French Quarter street.

The AP news agency reported that some survivors were determined to defend their neighbourhood from looters.

"We kind of together decided we would defend what we have here and we would stay up and defend the neighbourhood," said army veteran Charlie Hackett.