Bush pledges more storm help; death toll rises

By Paul Simao and Michael Christie

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – With President George W. Bush
promising to speed help to anxious and frustrated survivors,
the official death count from Hurricane Katrina exceeded 300 on
Friday in the two hardest-hit regions.

Relief supplies poured in from around the world and the
U.S. Congress rushed through approval for $51.8 billion in new
aid, after an earlier $10.5 billion was exhausted.

Bush, under criticism for his administration’s response to
the disaster and with his approval ratings at a low,
immediately signed the measure. “More resources will be needed
as we work to help people get back on their feet,” he said.

The president earlier said he would untangle bureaucratic
red tape that had triggered complaints from some of the 1
million people displaced by the August 29 storm, and he pledged
to ease access to special relief payments and government
programs.

However, confusion and complaints continued. At Houston’s
Astrodome, some of the thousands of storm evacuees housed there
complained of standing in line for hours and getting nowhere.

The official death toll surpassed 300 in the two hardest
hit states when Louisiana officials said they had confirmed 118
deaths, on top of 201 in neighboring Mississippi. Thousands
more may still be missing but the extent of the carnage remains
unknown.

In New Orleans, police and National Guard troops were
trying to roust out the remaining 10,000 or so people either
unwilling to leave the one-time city of 450,000 or unable to
help themselves, despite an order for everyone to clear out.

FIRST PRIORITY: RESCUES

The city’s police chief, Eddie Compass, repeatedly said
that the first priority was to help those still waiting for
rescue and that forced evacuation of the unwilling would be a
last resort, done with minimal force.

The below-sea level city was inundated by levee breaks
following the storm, and homes and streets filled up with
dark-brown water poisoned by bacteria, gasoline, oil, chemicals
and submerged bodies.

As the steady trickle of hold-outs left they were taken to
a collection center where their bags were checked by soldiers
for weapons. Medical attention was given to those needing it,
and all were handed cold water or soft drinks. They were also
offered copies of the New Testament supplied by church groups.

Many look bedraggled and exhausted.

“I couldn’t take it any longer,” said Fabian Chapuis, whose
neighborhood was chest-high in water. “It don’t make no
difference (where they take me) so long as we’re away from here
for a while.”

One young man virtually sprinted through the collection
center to the waiting bus, a big smile on his face, and eyed
the helicopter over his shoulder. “I don’t care how I get
there, but I kinda wanted to take the chopper,” he said.

Samuel Peters, clutching a Bible, said, “I’m not happy.
They forced me out of my house. They came in and told me you
get your things, you’re going.”

John DeSoto and Renee Ortiz, who lived in the French
Quarter, said they hoped to meet up with friends in Texas.

“Eventually everybody comes back,” said Ortiz. “They say
once you’ve had a cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde, you’re
doomed.”

INTERNATIONAL HELP

U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said 90
countries and international organizations hade offered
humanitarian aid to the victims and shipments were already
arriving.

In a scene heavy with symbolism and history, a Mexican army
convoy rolled into Texas on Thursday with food and medicine, in
Mexico’s first military operation on U.S. soil since the two
countries were at war in the mid-19th century.

A 44-vehicle convoy of 200 unarmed troops carrying
thousands of ready-to-eat meals, drinking water and medical
equipment, moved into San Antonio, where Mexican forces killed
189 rebels in the Alamo in 1836 during the Texas revolution
against Mexican rule.

Vice President Dick Cheney, touring the devastation in
Gulfport, Miss., voiced confidence in top federal emergency and
security officials.

“I think the progress we’re making is significant,” he
said. “I think the performance in general at least in terms of
the information I’ve received from locals is definitely very
impressive.”

Time magazine reported on its Web site that Federal
Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown, who has borne
some of the fiercest criticism over the recovery efforts, had
less experience in disaster issues than described in
biographical information from the agency and the White House.

Brown’s biography on FEMA’s Web site says he had once
served as an “assistant city manager with emergency services
oversight,” but Time quoted an official in Edmond, Oklahoma as
saying Brown was actually an assistant to the city manager,
with duties “more like an intern.”

A Pew Research Center poll found 67 percent of Americans
thought Bush could have done more to speed up relief efforts,
and just 28 percent believed he did all he could. The
president’s approval rating fell to 40 percent, down four
points since July to the lowest point Pew has recorded.

In New Orleans the Army Corps of Engineers said about an
eighth of the city’s pumping capacity was back in service,
draining fetid water from the city.

(Additional reporting by Jim Loney and Lesley Wroughton in
Baton Rouge, Adam Tanner in Houston, Caren Bohan in Gulfport
and Maggie Fox in Washington)