Wonder why things are slower? The "victims" are holding up relief efforts. Violence disrupts evacuation, rescue efforts in New Orleans
Programming Note: CNN looks at the disaster and chaos crippling Louisiana, "NewsNight," Thursday, 10 p.m. ET.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Nightfall and rising violence threatened to further disrupt relief efforts Thursday in New Orleans as authorities rescued residents still trapped in the flooded city and evacuated thousands of others living among corpses and human waste.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, said his agency was attempting to work "under conditions of urban warfare."
From the roof of a police station downtown late Thursday, groups of officers armed with rifles could be seen venturing out into the streets, while helicopters buzzed overhead and a shopping mall burned in the distance.
Police warned a CNN crew to stay off the streets because of escalating danger, and cautioned others about attempted shootings and rapes by groups of young men.
"This is a desperate SOS," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement Thursday afternoon, with thousands of people stranded at the city's convention center with no food, water or electricity -- and fading hope.
Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness of relief efforts.
Video from the convention center showed a group chanting "we want help, we want help," as mothers tried to console their tired and hungry children. (See video on the desperate conditions -- 4:36 )
Government officials insisted they were putting forth their best efforts and pleaded for patience, saying further help was on the way.
One displaced resident at the Louisiana Superdome, however, issued a warning to authorities who may be headed to the stadium, where up to 30,000 people had sought refuge after Monday's hurricane and now await evacuation to Texas by bus.
"Please don't send the National Guard," he said. "Send someone with a bullhorn outside the place that can talk to these people first."
He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply dragging corpses into corners.
"They have quite a few people running around here with guns," he said. "You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these girls."
Elsewhere, groups of armed men wandered the streets, buildings smoldered and people picked through stores for what they could find.
Charity Hospital, one of several facilities attempting to evacuate patients, was forced to halt the effort after coming under sniper fire. (Full story)[/url][/url] Living 'like animals'
The city is "out of resources at the convention center and doesn't anticipate enough buses," the mayor said in his statement.
CNN's Chris Lawrence described "many, many" bodies, inside and outside the facility on New Orleans' Riverwalk.
"There are multiple people dying at the convention center," Lawrence said. "There was an old woman, dead in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her, pushed up against a wall. Horrible, horrible conditions.
"We saw a man who went into a seizure, literally dying right in front of us."
Nagin said that "the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for [15,000 to 20,000] people."
He said the city would allow people to march up the Crescent City Connection to the Westbank Expressway in an effort to find help.
People were "being forced to live like animals," Lawrence said, surrounded by piles of trash and feces.
He said thousands of people were just lying on the ground outside the building -- many old, or sick, or caring for infants and small children.
More people were arriving at the center, walking south along Canal Street. The route north to the Superdome is blocked by chest-deep water.
The convention center was used as a secondary shelter when the Louisiana Superdome was overwhelmed.
Food drops began Thursday afternoon at the convention center, as rain also began falling.
A National Guard helicopter delivered MREs -- meals ready to eat -- and bottles of water. The amounts in the first few drops, however, were far short of enough for everyone.
State officials believe Katrina and its aftermath killed "thousands" of people in New Orleans and surrounding parishes, but no official count had been compiled, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said Thursday.
Brown said those who ignored the city's mandatory evacuation order bore some responsibility.
"I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Michael Brown told CNN.[/url][/url] Evacuation points swamped with people
A Louisiana National Guard official told CNN Thursday morning that between 50,000 and 60,000 people had converged at evacuation points near the Superdome hoping to get on one of the buses out of town.
"It's no longer just evacuees from the Superdome, as citizens who were holed up in high-rise office buildings and hotels saw buses moving into the dome, they realized this is an evacuation point," Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said. (Watch report on violence delaying evacuation -- 1:51)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff denied reports that rescue efforts in New Orleans had been halted for security reasons Thursday, saying those operations "are continuing in full force."
"We are going to continue to increase the tempo of that program until we've cleared people out of the Superdome and we've cleared people out of New Orleans," he said.
Chertoff said that the Coast Guard has rescued about 3,000 people from flooded areas in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes.
Nagin ordered his police force to leave search-and-rescue operations to the Coast Guard and concentrate on establishing order.
But officers told CNN they lacked manpower and steady communications to properly do their jobs -- and that they needed help to prevent the widespread looting and violence now prevalent in the city.
A police officer working in downtown New Orleans said police were siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles in an effort to keep their squad cars running.
The officer said police are "on their own" for food and water, scrounging up what they can from anybody who is generous enough to give them some -- and that they have no communication whatsoever. Police also told CNN they were removing ammunition from looted gunshops in an effort to get it off the streets.
Chertoff said that 4,200 National Guard military police would be deployed in New Orleans over the next three days, nearly quadrupling the overall law enforcement presence there.
Blanco said Thursday she has requested the mobilization of 40,000 National Guard troops to restore order and assist in relief efforts.[/url][/url] Power out; gas prices rising
The breadth of the brutality of Hurricane Katrina became clearer as more death toll figures began to filter in from Mississippi's coastal region.
Authorities said at least 185 people died in Monday's Category 4 storm.
Katrina knocked out electricity for more than 2.3 million people in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
Meanwhile, the storm's effect on oil supplies and gas prices spread nationwide, prompting the White House to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Two major suppliers of gasoline to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States resumed partial service Thursday.
The news came as gasoline prices surged to more than $3 a gallon in some parts of the country due to outages and bottlenecks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (Full story)
The flow of water into New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain has abated, Army Corps of Engineers officials said. But engineers won't begin trying to pump out the water until the breaches are plugged. (Recovery efforts)
The Army Corps of Engineersis attempting to plug a 300-foot breach in the Industrial Canal, a 500-foot breach in the 17th Street Canal and two smaller breaches in the London Avenue Canal.
Programming Note: CNN looks at the disaster and chaos crippling Louisiana, "NewsNight," Thursday, 10 p.m. ET.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Nightfall and rising violence threatened to further disrupt relief efforts Thursday in New Orleans as authorities rescued residents still trapped in the flooded city and evacuated thousands of others living among corpses and human waste.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, said his agency was attempting to work "under conditions of urban warfare."
From the roof of a police station downtown late Thursday, groups of officers armed with rifles could be seen venturing out into the streets, while helicopters buzzed overhead and a shopping mall burned in the distance.
Police warned a CNN crew to stay off the streets because of escalating danger, and cautioned others about attempted shootings and rapes by groups of young men.
"This is a desperate SOS," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement Thursday afternoon, with thousands of people stranded at the city's convention center with no food, water or electricity -- and fading hope.
Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness of relief efforts.
Video from the convention center showed a group chanting "we want help, we want help," as mothers tried to console their tired and hungry children. (See video on the desperate conditions -- 4:36 )
Government officials insisted they were putting forth their best efforts and pleaded for patience, saying further help was on the way.
One displaced resident at the Louisiana Superdome, however, issued a warning to authorities who may be headed to the stadium, where up to 30,000 people had sought refuge after Monday's hurricane and now await evacuation to Texas by bus.
"Please don't send the National Guard," he said. "Send someone with a bullhorn outside the place that can talk to these people first."
He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply dragging corpses into corners.
"They have quite a few people running around here with guns," he said. "You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these girls."
Elsewhere, groups of armed men wandered the streets, buildings smoldered and people picked through stores for what they could find.
Charity Hospital, one of several facilities attempting to evacuate patients, was forced to halt the effort after coming under sniper fire. (Full story)[/url][/url] Living 'like animals'
The city is "out of resources at the convention center and doesn't anticipate enough buses," the mayor said in his statement.
CNN's Chris Lawrence described "many, many" bodies, inside and outside the facility on New Orleans' Riverwalk.
"There are multiple people dying at the convention center," Lawrence said. "There was an old woman, dead in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her, pushed up against a wall. Horrible, horrible conditions.
"We saw a man who went into a seizure, literally dying right in front of us."
Nagin said that "the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for [15,000 to 20,000] people."
He said the city would allow people to march up the Crescent City Connection to the Westbank Expressway in an effort to find help.
People were "being forced to live like animals," Lawrence said, surrounded by piles of trash and feces.
He said thousands of people were just lying on the ground outside the building -- many old, or sick, or caring for infants and small children.
More people were arriving at the center, walking south along Canal Street. The route north to the Superdome is blocked by chest-deep water.
The convention center was used as a secondary shelter when the Louisiana Superdome was overwhelmed.
Food drops began Thursday afternoon at the convention center, as rain also began falling.
A National Guard helicopter delivered MREs -- meals ready to eat -- and bottles of water. The amounts in the first few drops, however, were far short of enough for everyone.
State officials believe Katrina and its aftermath killed "thousands" of people in New Orleans and surrounding parishes, but no official count had been compiled, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said Thursday.
Brown said those who ignored the city's mandatory evacuation order bore some responsibility.
"I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Michael Brown told CNN.[/url][/url] Evacuation points swamped with people
A Louisiana National Guard official told CNN Thursday morning that between 50,000 and 60,000 people had converged at evacuation points near the Superdome hoping to get on one of the buses out of town.
"It's no longer just evacuees from the Superdome, as citizens who were holed up in high-rise office buildings and hotels saw buses moving into the dome, they realized this is an evacuation point," Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said. (Watch report on violence delaying evacuation -- 1:51)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff denied reports that rescue efforts in New Orleans had been halted for security reasons Thursday, saying those operations "are continuing in full force."
"We are going to continue to increase the tempo of that program until we've cleared people out of the Superdome and we've cleared people out of New Orleans," he said.
Chertoff said that the Coast Guard has rescued about 3,000 people from flooded areas in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes.
Nagin ordered his police force to leave search-and-rescue operations to the Coast Guard and concentrate on establishing order.
But officers told CNN they lacked manpower and steady communications to properly do their jobs -- and that they needed help to prevent the widespread looting and violence now prevalent in the city.
A police officer working in downtown New Orleans said police were siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles in an effort to keep their squad cars running.
The officer said police are "on their own" for food and water, scrounging up what they can from anybody who is generous enough to give them some -- and that they have no communication whatsoever. Police also told CNN they were removing ammunition from looted gunshops in an effort to get it off the streets.
Chertoff said that 4,200 National Guard military police would be deployed in New Orleans over the next three days, nearly quadrupling the overall law enforcement presence there.
Blanco said Thursday she has requested the mobilization of 40,000 National Guard troops to restore order and assist in relief efforts.[/url][/url] Power out; gas prices rising
The breadth of the brutality of Hurricane Katrina became clearer as more death toll figures began to filter in from Mississippi's coastal region.
Authorities said at least 185 people died in Monday's Category 4 storm.
Katrina knocked out electricity for more than 2.3 million people in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
Meanwhile, the storm's effect on oil supplies and gas prices spread nationwide, prompting the White House to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Two major suppliers of gasoline to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States resumed partial service Thursday.
The news came as gasoline prices surged to more than $3 a gallon in some parts of the country due to outages and bottlenecks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (Full story)
The flow of water into New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain has abated, Army Corps of Engineers officials said. But engineers won't begin trying to pump out the water until the breaches are plugged. (Recovery efforts)
The Army Corps of Engineersis attempting to plug a 300-foot breach in the Industrial Canal, a 500-foot breach in the 17th Street Canal and two smaller breaches in the London Avenue Canal.