Most New Orleans residents allowed home, few staying

Residents of some of New Orleans' hardest-hit neighbourhoods returned home for the first time today, but officials expect few will stay since many houses are uninhabitable with spotty power and no drinking water.

Roadblocks and checkpoints manned by police and military have now been largely removed from the city, although the hardest-hit area, the mostly poor and black Ninth Ward, is still partially flooded and remains off limits.

Moving trucks and piles of ruined furniture, appliances and trash dotted the city's newly reopened Lakeview area as residents cleaned out their homes.

"Before it was a ghost town, there was nothing," said Ivan Banegas, 33, a construction worker who said he was looking for work in the city.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin yesterday said the city could accommodate up to 200,000 people, and that about 80,000 of the 455,000 pre-hurricane population was already back in town.

Troops patrolling the city, which Hurricane Katrina devastated on Aug 29, killing more than 1000 people, said activity had picked up as residents returned to check their homes.

"It really surprises me in some of the areas because houses are destroyed and unlivable, but there are still people coming in trying to live it out," said Zach Bokum, 21, of the Illinois National Guard.

However, some residents said they were unable to even think about living in homes that sat under as much as 2.5m of floodwater for weeks.

Rick Dolese, 56, showed off destroyed 19th-century armoires and other antiques in his home in Lakeview, where he was looking for furniture to load into a truck.

"Not only did the furniture fall apart, but everything floated around too," Dolese said.

Dolese and his wife have moved to Diamondhead, Mississippi, but own a home healthcare business in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, and hope to return someday.

Even the mayor, who has said he wants residents scattered around the country to come home, said he did not believe it would be a good idea for people whose homes were submerged in floodwaters for weeks to live there.

"You can come in, look and leave, as long as you abide by the curfew," he said. New Orleans is keeping everyone off the streets from 8pm until 6am daily.

Eighty per cent of low-lying New Orleans was flooded after the storm surge from Katrina broke through levees. Hurricane Rita, which struck the Louisiana-Texas border on September 24, caused new flooding that still persists in some areas.

Nagin initially sought to bring tens of thousands of people back to the city two weeks after Katrina hit. But after a firestorm of criticism for possibly putting citizens in jeopardy, he scrapped the plan ahead of Rita's arrival.

Fears remain that the city is not yet ready to support a large population.

"He's out of his mind," said Margaret Reina, 48, who returned to inspect her house in New Orleans' Fouberg Marigny neighborhood only to find the same downed and dangling power lines she saw three weeks ago on her block.

"I wouldn't bring children or old people here."

- REUTERS