New Orleans mayor sends out ‘desperate SOS’

NEW ORLEANS’ mayor issued an urgent plea for relief of his flooded city on Thursday as gunshots and looting hampered the evacuation of desperate crowds trying to escape Hurricane Katrina’s destruction.

“This is a desperate SOS,” Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement read by CNN. Some of the thousands of hungry, thirsty storm survivors outside the city’s convention centre chanted similar pleas.

“Right now we are out of resources at the convention centre and don’t anticipate enough buses. Currently the convention centre is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for 15,000 to 25,000 people,” Nagin said.