Rescuers battle to move last residents

ACROSS miles of ravaged neighbourhoods of clapboard houses, grand estates and housing projects, workers struggled to find corpses and persuade the city’s last stubborn residents to leave.

“Right now, human life is paramount so I’m concentrating all my power on getting out people who want to leave,” Police Chief Eddie Compass said.

Michael Keegan, a spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said rescuers were finding more and more residents willing to leave. “Some are finally saying, ‘I’ve had enough.’ They’re getting dehydrated. They are running out of food,” Mr Keegan said.

US government tests confirmed that the floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria in amounts at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits. The muck is believed to contain E coli, certain viruses and a cholera-like bacteria.

“If you haven’t left the city yet, you must do so,” said Dr Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She urged anyone coming into contact with the water to scrub up with soap and water.

The danger of infection was not limited to the New Orleans area. The bacteria are feared to have migrated to crowded shelters outside the state, where many evacuees are staying. Four deaths - one in Texas, three in Mississippi - have been attributed to infected wounds, said Tom Skinner, spokesperson for the CDC.

Mayor Ray Nagin had earlier said New Orleans’ death toll could reach 10,000. Already, a temporary warehouse morgue in rural St Gabriel that had been prepared to take 1,000 bodies was being readied to handle 5,000. The official death toll in Mississippi climbed to 201 on Wednesday, but more than 1,000 are feared dead there, too.

In Mississippi, efforts to restore power to residents along the battered coast were moving along.

The need to move on with their lives has refugees in shelters across Texas slowly moving out. Some are staying in the state. Others are catching buses or taking flights elsewhere.

In Houston, the number of refugees was down to 8,096 among four shelters, including the Astrodome.

Yvette Herbert, one of the Astrodome’s refugees, said buses were leaving for cities all over the US.

“Everywhere except New Orleans,” the 19-year-old said. “I want to go back home, but we can’t right now.”

The stepped-up evacuation began as workers trying to restart essential services came under sniper fire.

More than 100 officers and seven armoured personnel carriers captured a suspect in a housing project who had been firing on workers trying to restore mobile phone towers, authorities said.

The floodwaters continued to recede, though slowly, with only 23 of the city’s normal contingent of 148 pumps in operation, along with three portable pumps.