United States President George W. Bush listens to residents Kim Bassier (left), Bronwynne Bassier (centre) and Kevin Miller (right), in Biloxi, Mississippi, on Friday, as he toured the ravaged Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS (AP):
PLANES, TRAINS and buses delivered refugees to safety on Saturday as the evacuation of this ruined city finally appeared to pick up steam.
Buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome by early morning. At the equally squalid convention centre, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant.
More than 50,000 people had been trapped for days at the two filthy, sweltering buildings, suffering from a lack of food, water or medical attention. Help came too late for a number of them - dead bodies were a common sight, in wheelchairs, wrapped in blankets or just abandoned.
At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, thousands of people remained in a triage centre, many of them dying for lack of medical care.
"The hallways are filled, the floors are filled. There are thousands of people there," said Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was at the airport. "A lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day. It's a distribution problem. The doctors are doing a great job, the nurses are doing a great job."
Since the cavalry arrived in New Orleans on Friday, more than 25,000 residents have been evacuated, Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a briefing yesterday morning in Baton Rouge.
Both the number of people left in the city and the death toll remained unknown, because people continued showing up at evacuation sites and dead bodies were still being counted, Brown said.
"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. General Mark Graham said at the briefing.
Helicopters were removing the sickest people from the centre, and two of the city's most troubled hospitals were evacuated Friday after desperate doctors spent days making tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines.
On Friday, President George W. Bush took an aerial tour of the city and answered complaints about a sluggish government response by saying, "We're going to make it right." Flatbed trucks carried huge crates, pallets and bags of relief supplies, including Meals Ready to Eat. Soldiers sat in the backs of open-top trucks, their rifles pointing skyward.
Some outside the convention centre threw their arms heavenward and others hollered
profanities as camouflage-green vehicles and supply trucks finally rolled through axle-deep floodwaters into what remained of New Orleans.
National Guard Lt. Col. Jerry Crooks said troops had served more than 70,000 meals outside the convention centre and had 130,000 more on hand.
But on Saturday, hope was overtaken by frustration as people continued to wait. A dead man lay on a sidewalk under a blanket with a stream of blood running down the pavement toward the gutter. People said he died violently.
"We're hurting out here, man. We got to get help. All we want is someone to feel our pain, that's all," said Tasheka Johnson, 24.
The president took a land and air tour of hard-hit areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Friday, and admitted of the relief effort: "The results are not enough." Congress passed a US $10.5 billion disaster aid package, and Bush quickly signed the measure.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the military presence helped calm a jittery city.
"We are seeing a show of force. It's putting confidence back in our hearts and in the minds of our people," Blanco said. "We're going to make it through."
