New Orleans to stay shut for at least nine months

New Orleans will have to be abandoned for at least nine months, and many of its people will remain homeless for up to two years, the US government believes.

The bleak assessment will deepen the biggest-ever crisis faced by President George Bush, who last week in an embarrassing gaffe called the devastation of Hurricane Katrina a "temporary disruption".

As the relief effort finally got under way yesterday for the tens of thousands of people left without food, water, medicines or the rule of law for five days, the federal official in charge of disaster recovery told foreign diplomats that reconstruction cannot begin until next summer.

The President is now facing a political hurricane of his own, with gathering criticism, even from inside his own party, for failing to heed warnings of the city's vulnerability, cutting spending on its defences to pay for the wars on terror and in Iraq, and responding sluggishly to the worst natural catastrophe ever to hit his country.

Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans, says that every day of delay is caused hundreds of deaths. Louisiana's Republican Senator, David Vitter, gave the Bush administration "an F grade" for its handling of the crisis. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a leading contender for his party's nomination to succeed Mr Bush, said, "There must be some accountability."

The criticism is all the sharper because the President did nothing to alter his holiday schedule for 48 hours. Vice-President Dick Cheney remains on holiday in Wyoming. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, returned to Washington after being seen shopping for $7,000 shoes in Manhattan as New Orleans went under.

Dan Craig, director of recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the diplomats that it could take up to six months to drain the flood waters out of New Orleans, and another three to allow the city to dry out. Even then, he added, debris and other hazardous material would need to be cleared away before rebuilding could begin. Evacuees could have to be housed by the government for two years.

Officials say that the job of recovering, let alone counting, the dead may not start for weeks. The death toll is likely to far exceed the numbers killed in the 9/11 attacks almost exactly four years ago.

Sergeant Nicholas Stahl, of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, says that rescuers are focusing on finding an estimated 50,000 people still stranded by the flood waters and admitted "there is no system to collect and store bodies".

Snipers are shooting at rescue boats.

Even when the bodies are recovered, experts say it will be far harder to identify them than at the World Trade Center, because they are decomposing rapidly in the heat.

Although a government exercise last year accurately predicted the course of the disaster, Mr Bush drastically cut back on city defences.

- INDEPENDENT