Survivors high and dry as city sinks

Survivors of Hurricane Katrina rest on their cots on the floor of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Picture / Reuters

Thousands of soldiers poured into New Orleans at the weekend as homeless hurricane survivors were evacuated to an uncertain future.

The dispossessed of New Orleans - most rescued at last from the city's squalid refugee centres, rooftops and highway encampments - now face uncertainty in temporary accommodation as America asks how civil anarchy can erupt so quickly.

While a massive air and bus evacuation has cleared all Hurricane Katrina survivors from inside the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Centre, where rapes, robberies and deaths were reported, those evacuated now want to know when - if - they can return to a city whose languid charms have turned to fetid horror.

In Houston, Texas, where up to 200,000 refugees have fled, 15,000 are bedded down inside the Astrodome, safe but angry and awaiting word on loved ones. Recriminations are mounting over the Government response to Hurricane Katrina.

President George W. Bush ordered an extra 7000 regular troops into the disaster zone. Authorities also dispatched 10,000 extra National Guard, bringing a total of 54,000 military personnel, 40,000 of them reservists.

But many are critical of the slow reaction to the disaster, which last Monday laid waste to an area the size of New Zealand.

Low-lying Greater New Orleans, with its population of 1.5 million, was 80 per cent flooded by Tuesday. The subsequent evacuation order made no special provision for those without transport.

Over the weekend, as soldiers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division entered the lawless city, with helicopters and Swat teams on standby, a reminder of the dangers of the past week came with a sniper who started firing near the Superdome.

As well as the hundreds of buses taking people to safety, more than 10,000 survivors were flown out of New Orleans on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in Texas, northern Louisiana and Florida, where local authorities say they are now struggling to cope.

As the flood waters slowly receded, bodies still lay in the streets of New Orleans.

The corpse of a black woman remained in a wheelchair outside the Superdome for the fourth day.

No toll for the tragedy was available, but a senator has said the number of dead could top 10,000 in Louisiana. Mississippi has provided a provisional death toll of 147.

In New Orleans, the stench of urine, excrement and garbage is overpowering across the city.

Along the coast at Biloxi in Mississippi, authorities emptied a refugee shelter because of fears of dysentery.

"Our priorities are clear," President Bush said in a rare live radio address as he and his Administration came under intense fire for their handling of the rescue operation.

"We will complete the evacuation as quickly and safely as possible. We will not let criminals prey on the vulnerable and we will not allow bureaucracy to get in the way of saving lives."

He conceded that the early response to the disaster was too slow.

"Many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans, and that is unacceptable," he said.

But the Administration case will quickly come under scrutiny when a Senate committee starts hearings into the Government's disaster response.

Mr Bush went to the disaster zone on Friday, but in a sign of things to come, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu branded his visit to a burst levee a mere photo opportunity, and slammed his Government's response to the tragedy.

"Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity," she said.

New Orleans deputy police commander W.S. Riley said that National Guard troops had sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city.

"For 72 hours this police department and the fire department and a handful of citizens were alone rescuing people," he said.

"We have people who died while the National Guard sat and played cards."

National Guard commander Lieutenant General Steven Blum said the reservist force was slow to move troops into New Orleans because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city's police force.

Federal Emergency Management Agency co-ordinator Michael Brown said relief workers had opened a mortuary in New Orleans and were collecting what were expected to be thousands of decaying corpses.

Sick, exhausted and traumatised refugees welcomed the arrival of troops with relief - as well as anger that the promised supplies and National Guard reinforcements had taken so long to arrive.

"We thought they would let us die here," said Australian tourist Karen Marks, who spoke of sleepless nights spent huddled in fear as armed gangs roamed shelters and streets.

Refugees who had sheltered for days in squalid conditions in the New Orleans convention centre spoke of at least 14 deaths, including that of a young girl, whose throat was slit after she was raped in the cavernous, unlit building.

The evacuation when it finally came after the dispatch of extra troops took just eight hours.

In contrast to earlier nights of mayhem, New Orleans streets were calm but largely deserted on Saturday night, the once-vibrant capital of jazz and good times now patrolled by national guards and US marshals.

In Houston, where at least 100,000 and perhaps as many as 200,000 refugees had gathered in public shelters, hotels and private homes,

many of the poorest refugees said they had nothing to go back to in New Orleans.

Many described nights at the mercy of rapists and murderers and complained security forces sent to guard them at the city's convention centre were trigger happy and killed innocent people.

Those who fled the city and found shelter elsewhere described horrific scenes in New Orleans' neighbourhoods before they escaped.

"There were bodies floating everywhere. Lots of them. Some had bullets in them," said Michael Davis, 18, as he described his escape from a neighbourhood that was immersed in more than 3m of water. He ultimately found refuge at a domed arena in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Many were angry at the Government. "They have us living here like animals," said Wyvonnette Grace-Jordan, who was at the New Orleans convention centre with five children.

"We have only had two meals, we have no medicine and now there are thousands of people defecating in the streets. This is wrong. This is the United States of America."

Other people were still trapped in their homes surrounded by filthy floodwater.

A National Guard soldier said he saw an alligator jump out of the water on a residential street and bite a man's leg off. He said sharks were swimming around some houses.

Most of Katrina's victims are poor and black, unable to evacuate the area as the storm raced in, and the tragedy has highlighted the vast racial divide in the United States.

President Bush promised to fix the failings of the emergency efforts. "Where our response is not working we'll make it right."

He signed a US$10.5 billion ($14.9 billion) relief package for Gulf Coast areas.

Officials estimate that the economic loss could top US$100 billion.

- REUTERS