Quit Your Homes Now, Police Tell New Orleans Residents

ARMED police trudged from door to door in New Orleans yesterday, pleading with angry residents to abandon their homes.

As the desperate search and rescue continued, people were still being plucked alive from the devastation ten days after Hurricane Katrina passed.

One man, rescued by the Army’s 82nd airborne division, gave cameras a thumbs-up as he was carried off a helicopter on a stretcher.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the recovery effort was “very impressive” as he toured ravaged towns in Mississippi and Louisiana.

But such optimism was tempered by horrifying tales of death.

Yesterday, workers began recovering the remains of more than 30 people from a nursing home just outside New Orleans.

Some 25,000 body bags were arriving in the city as officials braced themselves for a long, arduous task.

The official death toll stands at 294, but is expected to rise dramatically towards a figure of up to 10,000.

The full extent of the horror will not be realised until the disease-ridden flood waters are fully drained, leaving behind a toxic slick of rubbish, oil and dead bodies.

Those still in the ravaged areas have no water, no electricity and dwindling supplies of food and medicine. But, for their own reasons, they simply will not leave.

“Do me a favour, write your address and your name down on a piece of paper and put it in your pocket,” one officer said to a stubborn 75-year-old man.

“Because when you die, we’re going to need to know who we’re picking up.”

Mr Cheney said he was struck by the “very positive, can-do” attitude of victims in Mississippi.

He was dispatched to the region by President George Bush to assess the relief effort and ensure the Government was doing everything possible.

“I think the progress we’re making is significant,” he said.

“That’s not to say there’s not an awful lot of work to be done – there is.”

President Bush sent Congress a request for additional hurricane relief, raising Katrina’s cost to pounds 34bn, a record for domestic disaster relief.

The Houston Astrodome, where thousands sought refuge in the devastating aftermath of the disaster, gradually emptied as evacuees took advantage of cheap property and local employment.

The population dropped from 16,000 to fewer than 3,000 as hundreds of others travelled to states all over the US in an attempt to rebuild their lives.

Officials expect it to be cleared out by Sunday.

Those remaining will be handed out pounds 1,000 ($2,000) debit cards to buy essential items such as toiletries and food.

President Bush later declared Friday, September 16, as a national day of prayer and remembrance.

He also announced steps that he promised would “cut through the red tape” to provide vital help to hurricane victims.

The President said everyone living in declared disaster zones would get “evacuee status” making it easy to collect state benefits anywhere in the country