Us > Troops roll into chaotic New Orleans bringing aid

A convoy of camouflage-green trucks wound its way through flooded streets, where marauding gangs roamed and corpses rotted in the sun a full four days after the hurricane battered the city.

President George W. Bush toured the stricken area and admitted government aid efforts had been unacceptable, but he promised to fix it. "We're going to make it right," he said.

New Orleans quickly descended into desperation and anarchy after the storm surge breached its protective system of levees, and floodwaters overwhelmed the city.

Thousands of people are feared killed, and a slow trickle of government aid did nothing to stop the chaos that followed.

Scenes of rampant looting and reports that armed gangs had taken over the streets of New Orleans amid a near-complete collapse of order have shocked Americans.

The military convoy's arrival raised hopes that the government might finally be getting a grip on the crisis.

"We got food, water and medical attention. We are gonna get you people out of here," an officer told thousands of hungry and frustrated people who have waited days at New Orleans' convention center for evacuation buses that never came.

Some cheered but others wanted to know why it had taken so long. Many stranded evacuees recounted horrific tales of murder, rape, death threats and near-starvation inside the filthy, stinking shelter this week.

"THROW-AWAY PEOPLE"

Leroy Fouchea, 42, said two infants were among those who perished because help was too slow in coming. "They died right here, in America, waiting for food."

"We are throw-away people," said Sherman Wright, 69.

A short distance away the corpse of a woman sat in a lawn chair, a towel draped over her head. She had been there since Thursday, people nearby said.

There seemed to be no end to the misery for some. One person died and several others suffered critical injuries when a bus carrying storm refugees to safety flipped on a highway near New Orleans.

The House of Representatives approved a $10.5 billion spending bill for rescue and recovery efforts in Gulf Coast areas devastated by Katrina and promised to make much more relief money available in coming weeks.

Music lovers were glad to hear rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino, who went missing after the storm, was rescued by boat from floodwaters near his New Orleans home. Domino was "stressed out" but safe, his agent said.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it may need up to 80 days to drain the floodwaters from the city after the hurricane struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday with roaring winds and a huge storm surge.

As people lined up to receive food and water from the troops, a soldier recently back from Iraq said the scene was eerily reminiscent of Baghdad.

"There were always people in the streets always asking for water and food," said Chad Blocker, 21, of the Arkansas National Guard. "It is kind of the same here except here it is your own people."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the troops were going with shoot-to-kill orders to stop looting. "These troops are battle-tested. They have M-16s and are locked and loaded."

NEVER THE SAME

But New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin questioned why they had not come sooner. "People are dying, people have lost their homes, people have lost their jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same," he said.

Bush walked down a storm-damaged street in downtown Biloxi, Mississippi, and comforted a sobbing woman who told him, "I don't have anything."

The woman, Bronwynne Bassier, 23, and her sister Kim, 21, managed to escape the storm but her house was in ruins. She clutched a black plastic bag she hoped to use to collect some items from what was left of her home.

"Sorry you're going through this," Bush said, hugging both women.

Dozens of foreign governments offered help ranging from cash donations and helicopters to tents and medical teams. But even as the offers came in, the U.S. government was widely criticized abroad for failing to move more effectively.

Nagin was furious. "Now get off your asses and fix this. Let's do something and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country," he said in a radio interview.

Stunned residents stumbled around bodies that lay decomposing and untouched. Others trudged along flooded and debris-strewn streets toward the Superdome football stadium where they hoped to be bused to safety.

Most of the victims were poor and black, largely because they have no cars and so were unable to flee the city before Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast. The disaster has highlighted the racial and class divides in a city and a country where the gap between rich and poor is vast.

The scenes of destruction and mayhem resembled a major Third World refugee crisis, angering politicians and local residents who said the lack of aid was unacceptable in the world's richest country.

Civil right leader Jesse Jackson, speaking in Baton Rouge, said the government had been "grossly insensitive" to the needs of New Orleans' poor.

"We've sent our National Guard, our helicopters, our resources to secure Baghdad and manufacture a democracy, but leaving New Orleans vulnerable," he told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Mark Babineck in New Orleans, Erwin Seba, Paul Simao and Jim Loney in Baton Rouge, Peter Cooney in Houston, Steve Holland, Charles Aldinger and John Whitesides in Washington)

2005-09-03