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New Orleans slides deeper into chaos

Gary Younge

Governor warns of shoot-to-kill policy; Senator fears 10,000 deaths

MOBILE (ALABAMA): United States President George W. Bush arrived on Friday night in the ravaged Gulf coast region amid mounting criticism of his handling of the crisis and a prediction by one Senator that the death toll in Louisiana alone could top 10,000 people.

As thousands of people sat on the streets of New Orleans, having spent their fourth day waiting to be rescued, the city fell deeper into chaos, with gangs roaming the city and corpses rotting in the sun.

Kathleen Blanco, the Governor of Louisiana, threatened looters with a shoot-to-kill policy.

``These troops are battle-tested. They have M16s and are locked and loaded,'' she said. ``These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will.''

Fire in apartment

Plumes of thick black smoke rose after an explosion rocked an industrial area hit hard by Katrina and an apartment complex in the city centre was also in flames. The explosion was later said to have taken place in a chemical storage facility.

Stunned residents stumbled around bodies that lay rotting and untouched.

Others trudged along flooded and debris-strewn streets toward the Superdome football stadium where they hoped to be taken to safety.

Calling for the immediate deployment of combat troops in New Orleans, David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican Senator said: ``My guess is that it [the death toll] will start at 10,000.'' He said this estimate was not based on any official death toll or body count.

Even before he set off, Mr Bush was forced to admit that the relief effort had been inadequate: ``The results are not acceptable,'' he said.

Later he said: ``I am not looking forward to this trip. It's as if the entire Gulf coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine.''

Aid convoys arrive

An emergency military convoy of aid supplies arrived in New Orleans on Friday to help in the relief of tens of thousands of refugees made desperate in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Live television broadcasts showed a queue of military vehicles loaded with crates making their way through the flooded streets. Troops with rifles rode in the convoy.

In another sign of aid finally getting through, commercial aircraft carrying supplies were arriving at an increased rate of four per hour at New Orleans international airport, the department of transport said. The planes were evacuating displaced residents.

New Orleans has descended into anarchy since it was devastated by Katrina on Monday.

Standing alongside the Governors of Alabama and Mississippi at his first stop in Mobile, Alabama, Mr Bush said: ``We have a responsibility to clean up this mess. What is not working right, we're going to make it right.'' He then went on to Biloxi, Mississippi, where he spoke to victims before heading to New Orleans.

On Friday, the U.S. Congress broke away from its holiday to implement a $10.5-billion aid package, while the Pentagon promised 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop looting in the city. But these moves did little to quell the mounting anger of the hurricane's victims and local officials, particularly in New Orleans.

At the increasingly unsanitary convention centre, the crowds swelled to about 25,000 as people sought food, water and attention, while dead bodies lay in wheelchairs or wrapped in sheets both inside and outside the centre. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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