New Orleans: The grim clean-up continues

The putrid air rising from New Orleans’ slowly receding floodwaters was found not to be overly polluted, encouraging news for a mayor weighing the reopening of the French Quarter and other dry parts of the city.

Mayor Ray Nagin had said a clean bill of health for the air would allow the tourist-friendly French Quarter and central business district to reopen as early as Monday.

While the Environmental Protection Agency still found the floodwaters contained dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria, the air pollutants were determined to be at acceptable levels.

As the grim clean-up continued, Louisina Governor Kathleen Blanco took responsibility yesterday for failures and missteps by the state government in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

She pledged to remake New Orleans better than before the storm.

“To anyone who even suggests that this great city should not be rebuilt, hear this and hear it well: We will rebuild,” she said, addressing a meeting of state lawmakers in Baton Rouge.

About 40% to 50% of the city was still flooded, down from 80% after Katrina hit, as 53 permanent and temporary pumps worked to siphon off eight billion gallons a day.

On the hard-hit east side, block after block of once-flooded neighbourhoods gave way to a slimy, putrid muck, ruined cars, snapped utility poles and collapsed houses.

Virtually all homes bore marks indicating they had been searched for victims. None in sight during a pass through neighbourhoods had an additional numeral that would indicate bodies.

The body count in Louisiana alone climbed to 474 yesterday, and it was expected to rise further as state and federal officials went about the task of collecting bodies and then using DNA to identify them.

“It’s going to take months, maybe years,” said Dr Louis Cataldi, the coroner for Baton Rouge Parish.

“This is not going away.”

Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said the office has been besieged with allegations of neglect that may have led to injuries or deaths at nursing homes and hospitals.

But Louisiana District Attorneys Association President Peter Adams said he would be surprised if such incidents were widespread. “What we’ve mainly seen is heroism,” he said.

In Washington, Senate Republicans scuttled an attempt by Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments’ response to the hurricane.

President George Bush prepared to travel to the state today to deliver a prime-time televised speech to the nation.