New Orleans Slides Into Chaos; U.S. Scrambles to Send Troops
NEW ORLEANS — The rushed mobilization of federal troops to the storm-desolated Gulf Coast was outpaced Thursday by New Orleans' rapid descent into chaos. Sniper fire threatened hospital evacuations and a mass bus caravan to Texas, corpses were found outside the city's decaying convention center and weakened refugees collapsed amid enraged crowds on city streets.
At nightfall, heavily armed police and National Guard troops took positions on rooftops, scanning for snipers and armed mobs as seething crowds of refugees milled below, desperate to flee. Gunfire crackled in the distance.
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin implored federal officials for immediate aid. "This is a desperate SOS," Nagin said.
About 5,000 people filled the city's convention center and the trash-strewn streets outside on a city plaza where tourists once strolled. Outside the dank, cavernous hall, where temperatures soared and lights winked out, seven corpses lay sprawled, covered by blankets. Other deaths were reported nearby, and there was an increasing number of accounts of rapes and beatings, city officials said.
The Mississippi River city's swift downward spiral overwhelmed beleaguered New Orleans emergency officials and posed a stark crisis for the Bush administration and federal troops converging on the flooded Gulf Coast region.
"I know this is an agonizing time," President Bush said of despairing flood victims in the Gulf Coast region, which he planned to visit today for the first time. "I ask their continued patience as recovery operations unfold."
Congress rushed a $10.5-billion down payment in relief aid for Hurricane Katrina's millions of victims Thursday as thousands of National Guard troops converged on bases and staging areas across the flood zone.
As the situation deteriorated, dismayed New Orleans officials and strapped authorities elsewhere in the Gulf Coast begged for immediate aid. Some grumbled openly about the relief effort, saying the Bush administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials had endangered lives by moving too slowly.
"This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," said Terry Ebbert, head of emergency operations for New Orleans. He said it had taken too long to evacuate the Superdome.
Army engineers have also been criticized for failing to act quickly to plug gaping breaches in the city's levees, which were still leaching tons of water Thursday.
