New Orleans battles back against Katrina flooding

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans was slowly turning back the floodwaters on Tuesday as engineers closed a major break in levees swamped by Hurricane Katrina -- a disaster the mayor says may have killed 10,000 in his city.

Survivors living outside New Orleans got their first look at homes pounded by Katrina, which tore across the US Gulf Coast eight days ago with 225 km/h winds and a huge storm surge, exacting a grim toll in death and destruction.

More than a million people may have been driven from their homes -- many perhaps permanently -- with hundreds of thousands of evacuees taking refuge in shelters, hotels and private homes across the country following one of America's worst natural calamities.

The storm devastated New Orleans after protective levees gave way a week ago under the force of Katrina and floodwaters inundated the historic city.

The US Army Corps of Engineers said it plugged a big gap in the levees on Monday and was pumping water out of the city, a task it expects will take up to 80 days.

The Corps was also working to plug another major breach in the levees built to keep out the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, which nearly surround the city, spokesman John Hall said.

"We are proceeding very gently," Hall said of the pumping operation. Engineers want to ensure the water being pumped out does not further damage the levee system and create a new breach.

Rescue teams in New Orleans were going house to house in boats, helicopters and military vehicles seeking people still stranded in their homes by floodwaters.

Police urged survivors who had not gotten out in mass evacuations before and after Katrina to leave the city, a longtime tourist mecca celebrated for jazz, Mardi Gras and easy living.

"There are no jobs. There are no homes to go to, no hotels to go to, there is absolutely nothing here," Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said. "We advise people that this city has been destroyed, it has completely been destroyed."

Swollen bodies floated in the streets and authorities worry there may be thousands more dead inside New Orleans homes.

The official death toll in Louisiana was 59 but officials said it would climb dramatically in coming days. In Mississippi, well over 100 deaths from Katrina had been confirmed, with many people unaccounted for.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said "it wouldn't be unreasonable" for his city's death toll to rise to 10,000, although he admitted he had no idea of the exact number.

FIRST GLIMPSES OF HOME

In suburban Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, authorities allowed residents on Monday to take a first look at Katrina's damage to their homes.

The residents confronted a scene of toppled trees and street signs. Spacious middle-class homes were flooded with several feet of water.

"I try to be upbeat but it's devastating. I may lose my house because I may not be able to make my payments, and I don't know when I'm going to work again," said Mark Becker, 48, at his Metairie home.

Storm winds had ripped two holes in his roof and caused the ceiling to collapse in a bedroom and kitchen.

The residents were allowed only to gather items they needed and leave again by nightfall because there was no power or clean water.

At least 240,000 people from Louisiana had been evacuated into neighboring Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry said the state could handle no more and asked any more be airlifted to other states.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, severely criticized for its response to Katrina, said on Tuesday it was transporting evacuees at New Orleans' airport to five air bases across the country that had 4,000 beds available because of troops gone to Iraq. A spokesman said FEMA Director Michael Brown would assess the availability of more bases on Tuesday.

THREE PRESIDENTS

President George W. Bush, whose administration has been under fire for initial delays in responding to the crisis, visited dozens of Katrina victims in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and promised the country would "do what it takes" to help people get back on their feet.

It was the second trip to the ravaged region in less than a week for Bush, already suffering from the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, largely because of the Iraq war.

Bush, who had admitted the results of early relief efforts were "unacceptable," promised on Monday: "If it's not right, we're going to fix it, and if it is right, we're going to keep doing it. And this is just the beginning of a huge effort.

Former President Bill Clinton told CNN: "Our government failed those people in the beginning. There is no dispute about it."

Clinton and former President George Bush, the current president's father, met on Monday with evacuees taking shelter at Houston's Astrodome and established a fund to assist those displaced by Katrina.

Asked about widespread criticism of his son's slow response to the crisis, Bush replied : "What do I think as a father? I don't like it ... (but) it goes with the territory."

(additional reporting by Jim Loney in Baton Rouge, Adam Tanner and Jason Webb in Houston, Matt Daily in Biloxi, Tabassum Zakaria in Baton Rouge and Maggie Fox in Washington)

- REUTERS