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| Sunday, 4 September 2005 |
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Troops inject some relief into New Orleans misery New Orleans Sep. 3 (AFP) Stepped-up relief operations brought a glimmer of hope to New Orleans on Saturday, but death and despair still stalked thousands of stranded hurricane survivors after five days of appalling suffering. The sign that some progress was finally being made came with the arrival in the devastated city Friday of thousands of National Guard troopers and a large military convoy bearing urgently needed food, water and medicines. Sick, exhausted and traumatised refugees welcomed the convoy with relief and anger that the promised supplies and National Guard reinforcements had taken so long to arrive. "We thought they would let us die here," said Karen Marks, 25, who spoke of sleepless nights spent huddled in fear as the city slipped into anarchy, with armed gangs roaming shelters and flooded streets, looting, mugging and raping with impunity. "We have been crying a lot for the past few days," Marks said. In the absence of any comprehensive body count, estimates of the number of dead since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the US Gulf Coast on Monday ran into thousands. One senator said the toll would top 10,000 in Louisiana alone. Under fire for his handling of the catastrophe, President George W. Bush promised that more help was on the way after touring the affected region on foot and by helicopter. "I want you to know I'm not going to forget what I've seen," said Bush, who later signed off on a 10.5-billion-dollar emergency spending package approved by Congress, "I understand the devastation requires more than one day's attention. It's going to require the attention of this country for a long time," he said. Earlier in the day, one of the president's staunchest critics, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, launched into a tirade against official promises of help to come. "It's too doggone late!" Nagin said in an angry and emotional radio interview. "Now get off your asses and let's do something and fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country." The criticism had intensified with the harrowing testimony of hurricane survivors and local law enforcement officers, recounting scenes of bodies piling up, gunbattles, fistfights, carjackings and widespread looting. Sheriff's deputy Luis Reyes, who guarded a local prison during Hurricane Katrina and the days after, described how inmates desperate for water fell out of cell windows onto razor wire where they hung for hours waiting to be rescued. With fresh troops patrolling the city and relief supplies finally rolling in, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco suggested that some sort of corner had been turned. |
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