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Bush to announce new help for hurricane region
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-15 21:34
As U.S. President George W. Bush prepared to unveil plans on Thursday to
revive areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, the mayor of New Orleans said his own
initiative could return 180,000 people to the city within two weeks, the
Associated Press reported.
Bush, his approval ratings at a low amid criticism of the government's
response to the August 29 storm, was to address the nation from New Orleans at
9:02 p.m. EDT (0102 GMT on Friday) following stops in Mississippi, which also
suffered widespread damage.
The speech "will be an opportunity for the president to update the American
people about the latest developments of our recovery and talk about the way
forward as we begin rebuilding," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
He added that Bush, who has visited the U.S. Gulf Coast area three times
since the storm, will unveil some "new initiatives" but did not elaborate.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, whose city of 450,000 was all but turned into a
ghost town after levee breaks flooded most of it, said he would introduce
measures of his own on Thursday.
"I'm going to announce a phased repopulation plan that is going to deal with
some of the areas that were least hit by the hurricane and had less water, and
then within the next week or two we should have about 180,000 people back in the
city of New Orleans," Nagin told CNN.
Earlier Nagin singled out the historic French Quarter, which is above sea
level and did not suffer flood damage, as well as the central business district
and two other neighborhoods as likely candidates for early resettlement.
Parts of New Orleans are still under water. In poor neighborhoods, lightly
built structures in a region that rarely sees freezing weather were lifted off
their foundations by the water and collapsed. Many appeared beyond repair.
DEAD STILL BEING FOUND
Nor was the task of recovering all of the dead in New Orleans complete,
though the count is far lower than some earlier projections.
The death toll stood at 711 with 474 in Louisiana, 218 in Mississippi and
another 19 deaths in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
But recovery was spreading across the region.
Officials in Jefferson Parish, which curls around New Orleans from the west
to the south, said two more towns, Kenner and Harahan, would open to residents
on Thursday.
Officials in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish east of the city said business
owners there could return on Thursday to check on their properties.
In Mississippi officials said they were receiving far more donations of used
clothing from around the country than they will ever be able to use.
The more than 1,000 people still housed in shelters near Gulfport have a
greater need for items such as canned food, personal hygiene items, detergent,
bleach and cleaning supplies, they said.
Residents returning to some Louisiana towns on Wednesday for the first time
since the storm struck were either devastated or relieved.
In Lafitte, a quiet fishing town where a summer seafood festival is the
highlight of the social year, some homes were untouched and others piles of
rubble.
"It was real hit-and-miss," said Lester Cipriano, whose home suffered minor
damage. A shattered mobile home nearby had lost its roof, with torn insulation
covering the floor.
New Orleans was still technically under a mandatory evacuation order, but
some residents were sneaking back to reclaim houses that escaped heavy damage.
In the Garden District near downtown, where many gracious homes were spared,
some people had returned.
"It's better here than in a hotel," said David, who did not give his last
name. He got past a security checkpoint through his girlfriend, who has a
medical ID, and they moved back into their wood-frame house, relying on bottled
water and flashlights.
NURSING HOME TRAGEDY
In Washington Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), an Iowa
Republican, asked the U.S. Justice Department and the federal Department of
Health and Human Services to launch investigations into the deaths of 34
patients who apparently drowned when floodwaters engulfed a nursing home for the
elderly near New Orleans.
He said there were reports that 28 other patients may have died before they
could be rescued from two nursing homes inside New Orleans.
Louisiana officials have filed criminal charges against the owners of St.
Rita's home in St. Bernard Parish, charging that 34 elderly and disabled
patients were allowed to drown. A lawyer a representing the couple who own the
facility said they had behaved responsibly.
Traces of the tragedy inside that home were still visible.
Beds were overturned and wheelchairs were stacked up near windows, perhaps
indicating desperate attempts to escape by those who died.
Water marks indicated the rooms were flooded to within 1 foot (.34 meter) of
the ceiling. The names of patients were still on the doors, pictures of them on
walls and stuffed animals and other belongings mired in mud on the floor.
Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said the owners had turned down an
offer from local officials to take the patients out by bus and did not bother to
call in an ambulance service with which they had a contract. Their lawyer said
some of the patients were far too frail to have been moved and would have died
had that been attempted.
The storm will likely be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with
damage estimates ranging from $100 billion to $200 billion.
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