Police threaten forced evacuation

By Michael Christie

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Police threatened to force
reluctant Hurricane Katrina survivors to leave a ruined and
fetid New Orleans on Wednesday as a political storm grew over
the botched response to the disaster that some say could cost
$150 billion.

Troops and police fanned out across town, trying to enforce
a mandatory evacuation order from Mayor Ray Nagin, who said the
flooded city was a health danger without a functioning economy
or basic services.

Thousands are feared dead from the hurricane and its
aftermath. Teams searching flooded areas of the city, which is
still 60 percent under water, tied bodies to trees or fences
when they found them and noted the location for later recovery.

Nagin said floodwaters threatened those still clinging to
the life they knew before Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast last
week, with garbage, oil and waste floating in stagnant pools
inundating the historic city that is now largely abandoned.

But as in many aspects of the rescue effort, there was
confusion about whether the government could or would force
people from their homes.

“We personally will not force anyone out of their homes,”
said Art Jones, a senior official in the Louisiana Department
of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. “It’s very
difficult to force an American out of their home.”

State and local police, however, said force would be used
if necessary.

“We’ll do everything it takes to make this city safe. These
people don’t understand they’re putting themselves in harm’s
way,” said New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass.

Cars that had crowded New Orleans streets now were visible
poking up through its flooded thoroughfares. This post-Katrina
city buzzed with helicopters landing on overpasses to drop off
rescued people to lines of waiting ambulances.

The skies were thick with sleek and menacing Black Hawks,
twin-rotor Chinooks, orange-colored Coast Guard choppers and
others of every stripe. Slow-moving military transport planes
also rumbled overhead, bringing supplies.

“The sounds of New Orleans were jazz, people laughing,
people eating a good meal,” Nagin said. “And now the sounds of
New Orleans are helicopters and army vehicles. This is almost
surreal.”

ECONOMIC COST SOARS

As the scope of the disaster that has driven more than a
million people from their homes became clearer, financial
estimates of its cost grew.

The Congressional Budget Office said Hurricane Katrina
could cost as many as 400,000 U.S. jobs and slash economic
growth by up to 1 percentage point.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the cost
of recovery and relief could be more than $150 billion.
Louisiana Homeland Security’s Jones said the storm’s cost will
exceed $100 billion.

The White House is preparing a new emergency budget request
likely to total $40 billion to $50 billion for the recovery, in
addition to $10.5 billion approved by Congress last week.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he would lead an
investigation into the emergency operation which has been
criticized for not being prepared for the long-predicted storm,
but he resisted demands for an immediate probe.

“There will be ample time for people to figure out what
went right, and what went wrong. What I’m interested (in) is
helping save lives,” he said.

Bush’s response to the crisis was rated “bad” or “terrible”
by 42 percent of Americans surveyed for a CNN/USA Today Gallup
poll released on Wednesday, compared with 35 percent who said
it was “good” or “great.” The federal government’s performance
received the same ratings, while the response of state and
local officials was viewed negatively by 35 percent and
positively by 37 percent.

“IF I’M GOING TO BE MISERABLE”

Out on New Orleans streets, which look like a war zone with
thousands of soldiers and police on patrol, National Guard
troops went from house to house, person to person, trying to
convince them to leave.

They explained the dangers of staying put and gave them
information about how to evacuate, but also assured that the
city that was crime-ridden and chaotic in the days after
Katrina was now safe.

Florence Castets, appeared nervous as the troops spoke to
her in an area near the Garden District, and she was
noncommittal about her plans.

“I don’t have any information, though I have felt safer
here than going anyplace else,” she said. “The people who knew
us left us behind. They were more concerned about their cars
and dogs than us.”

The die-hard inhabitants of a city mainly known for jazz
and Mardi Gras before it became a disaster area of Third-World
proportions say they fear evacuation to parts of the country
where they have no family or means of support.

“If I’m gonna be miserable, I’d better be miserable right
here,” said Robert Johnson, 58, from his rundown house in the
city’s 9th Ward.

Martha Smith-Aguillard, 72, said she was brought against
her will to an evacuation point at the city’s wrecked
convention center. Her foot was swollen after she trod on a
rusty nail and she said she needed a tetanus shot.

Nonetheless, she refused to board a government helicopter.

“They manhandled me and paid no mind to what I said. I
ain’t never been in no helicopter in my life, or no airplane,
and I’m 72, I ain’t starting now,” she said.

“I’m not going to get that tetanus shot, so I guess I’ll
just have to die,” she said, adding, “We’re all going to die
and if I’m going to die, it’s gonna be right here in New
Orleans.”

(Additional reporting by Adam Entous in Washington)