http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usmain064413511sep06,0,3942634.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
KATRINA: INTO THE BREACH
Bush greeted by storm backlash
Return to ravaged area met by skepticism as major levee repaired and
New Orleans starts pumping out water
This story was reported by J. JIONI PALMER, JENNIFER SMITH, MARTIN C.
EVANS, SYLVIA ADCOCK and JOSEPH MALLIA, and was supplemented with wire
reports
It was written by Mallia.
September 6, 2005
As the Army Corps of Engineers yesterday plugged one of the largest
levee breaks that flooded New Orleans, President George W. Bush
visited the Gulf Coast offering sympathy for Hurricane Katrina's
refugees, to a sometimes cool reception.
As the man who represents, to many in the Gulf States, a government
response that Bush himself called "not acceptable," the president
faced a continuing backlash from survivors and officials along the
flattened path of last week's hurricane.
Some kept their distance from the president at public appearances,
saying he showed a lack of resolve during a fateful test of
leadership.
One persistent critic of the Bush administration's response, New
Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, warned during an appearance on NBC's "Today"
show that "it wouldn't be unreasonable" to have 10,000 deaths from
Hurricane Katrina.
During a Bush appearance at the Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton
Rouge, where evacuees had found temporary shelter, some residents
asked for autographs from first lady Laura Bush and the president.
Not everyone, though, was overawed.
"I need answers," said one hurricane victim, Mildred Brown, who had
been at Bethany with her family since Tuesday. "I'm not interested in
handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a
lot of money."
Using sheets of metal and repeated helicopter drops of 30,000-pound
sandbags, the Army Corps of Engineers closed a breach of the 17th
Street Canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain yesterday by plugging a
200-foot-wide gap. Water was being pumped from the canal back into the
lake. State officials and the Army engineers say once the canal level
is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station 6 can begin pumping water out
of the bowl-shaped city.
Meanwhile, on back streets and in housing projects, a variety of
rescuers, including the actor Sean Penn in a small boat, continued to
pluck survivors from their homes amid the city's acrid mix of
floodwater, sewage and corpses.
Yet the Army Corps' achievement was undercut by accusations that the
Bush administration had repeatedly trimmed the agency's levee-building
budget and, in effect, helped fund the Iraq war with money that might
have blunted the effects of a Category 4 hurricane.
Louisiana's Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, stopped short of
publicly venting her anger at the president. But her relations with
Bush appeared frosty as they toured a Baton Rouge shelter for storm
victims.
Blanco left bonhomie aside as she handed over the microphone at a
public gathering. "I know I don't need to make any other introduction
other than 'Mr. President,'" Blanco said tersely, handing over the
mike.
In a separate speech to a group of local officials in Poplarville,
Miss., Bush continued to use the forward-looking turns of phrase that
marked other speeches last week. "This is one of these disasters that
will test our soul and test our spirit, but we're going to show the
world once again that not only can we survive, but we will be stronger
and better for it," Bush said.
In the suburbs of New Orleans yesterday, cars lined inbound roads as
residents were allowed to visit their abandoned homes to retrieve
valued possessions.
In New Orleans, police and military vehicles arrived in force as city
Police Superintendent Eddie Compass, stung by reports that many police
officers had deserted, praised those who remained on duty without food
or water.
The new military presence came with glitches. At one checkpoint, U.S.
military personnel blocked specialists from reaching the New Orleans
Notorial Archives. The document salvage team hopes to rescue some of
the most historic documents in the city's history, from original land
grants to slave sale records and title records.
New Orleans, which days ago had descended into lawlessness, by
yesterday had the look of a military garrison, as solders milled about
and military helicopters thumped overhead.
Hundreds of military vehicles could be seen moving toward the city
throughout the day.
About a dozen sand-colored armored personnel carriers cruised the
streets, bearing helmeted members of the Oregon National Guard.
Members of the 82nd Airborne Brigade, sporting the unit's distinctive
red berets and carrying M-16 automatic rifles at the ready, fanned out
through the empty streets of a section north of the French Quarter.
Staff Sgt. Michael Barbera of Brooklyn said they had been given orders
to assist with the search for residents who were not yet evacuated.
As he walked past uprooted trees, broken windows, abandoned houses and
wrecked cars, Barbera said he had never seen an American city so
devastated. "This looks like Iraq," said Barbera, who participated in
the occupation of Iraq during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s.
The crush of evacuees being treated at a triage center set up at Louis
Armstrong New Orleans International Airport had diminished from
thousands to a few hundred, FEMA spokesman Don Jacks said.
Developments at a glance
The Army Corps of Engineers succeeded in plugging a hole in the 17th
Street Canal after helicopters dropped numerous 30,000-pound sandbags
into the breach as long as a football field. The achievement was
hailed as a first step toward draining New Orleans.
In the suburbs of New Orleans yesterday, cars lined inbound roads as
residents were allowed to visit their abandoned homes to retrieve
valued possessions.
The flood of help from other areas of the country continued. The U.S.
Department of Transportation said it was overseeing the largest
airlift in the country's history. And six additional Navy ships in the
ready reserve fleet are being sent to New Orleans, including the
Empire State, a ship based at SUNY Maritime College. They will join
U.S. Ready Reserve Fleet ships the Cape Kennedy and the Cape Knox.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave a grim warning yesterday, saying on
NBC's "Today" show that "it wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000"
dead in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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