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How many billions spent in "Homeland Security"?
This is what we get?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NYTr] Govt Now Admits: Thousands Dead in New Orleans
Date: 31 Aug 2005 23:22:23 -0500
From: nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[BBC TV news reported tonight that rescue workers counted at least 
10,000 people still on the roofs of New Orleans awaiting rescue, 
when they stopped counting. Gulfport, Mississippi is in even worse
condition with virtually ALL the buildings flattened and scores of
bodies being pulled out from almost every apartment house.-NYTr]

sent by mart

The Scotsman -Thu 1 Sept. 2005
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1873262005

New Orleans cleared as 'thousands' dead

By JACQUI GODDARD IN NEW ORLEANS AND FOREIGN STAFF

THE death toll from the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina may be in
the thousands in New Orleans alone, it emerged last night, as the order to
abandon the city was issued with floodwaters still rising.

The city's mayor, Ray Nagin, warned it could be four months before people
were allowed back, while risk analysts estimated the storm will cost
insurers =A314.5 billion.

Last night, Mr Nagin suggested an estimated death toll that would make the
storm by far the nation's deadliest hurricane in more than a century.

"We know there are a significant number of dead bodies in the water, and
other people dead in attics," Mr Nagin said.

Asked how many, he replied: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina has reached 110 in
Mississippi.

Louisiana put aside counting the dead to concentrate on rescuing the living,
many of whom are still trapped on rooftops and in attics.

The Red Cross reported it had about 40,000 people in 200 shelters across the
area, in one of the biggest urban disasters the nation has ever seen.

Meanwhile, George Bush's plane swooped low over Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama yesterday to allow the president to see some of the worst damage, as
he returned to Washington after cutting short his holiday in Texas to take
charge of the disaster relief.

As engineers failed to plug the gaps Hurricane Katrina had ripped in
embankments that normally keep the water from the city of 480,000 people,
rescue workers continued their search for survivors.

Authorities ordered those who could leave to do so and plans were announced
to evacuate up to 25,000 "refugees" - many of them sheltering in the New
Orleans Superdome - from Louisiana to Texas, where they will be housed in
the Houston Astrodome.

Those still stranded were running out of food and water and growing
desperate as authorities tried to determine how to get them out.

"We've sent buses in. We will be either loading them by boat, helicopter,
anything that is necessary," said Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana's governor.
"The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in
the shelters. It's becoming untenable.  There's no power. It's getting more
difficult to get food and water supplies in, just basic essentials."

Highway 10, once a bustling New Orleans commuter route, is now the hub of
the search and rescue operation, bringing those still clinging to rooftops
and crouched in attics above the rising floodwater to safety.

A group of those already rescued sat with their heads in their hands, faces
screwed into expressions of misery, confusion - and relief.

Some were shirtless, some shoeless. Many were still dripping wet from their
long hours spent in the swampy waters. Others were so old, frail, or
shell-shocked that they simply lay on the road, staring in utter
bewilderment.

"This is where our biggest nightmare ends and our next biggest nightmare
begins," said William Autry, 73, who was trapped in water up to his
shoulders at his home on the south bank of Lake Pontchartrain before a
rescue boat brought him out.

More were being evacuated from flood-stricken hospitals and from the
Pontchartrain road bridge, where parish officials said a "sea of humanity"
was sitting or lying waiting for help.

Helicopters were landing so frequently that they were forming noisy traffic
jams in the sky.

Navy Chinooks and others supplied by the Coastguard and National Guard
landed only briefly to unload their bedraggled passengers before lifting off
to continue the race against time that the evacuation of New Orleans has
become.

The crowds were assessed and the sick and wounded placed on stretchers and
hooked up to drips and oxygen. Two tents were erected at the roadside as
makeshift hospitals, to accommodate about a dozen patients at a time.

Ken King, from a Louisiana ambulance service, said: "Most of those we are
treating are older people who have been without their vital medicines -
diabetics, asthmatics, people with heart conditions, kidney patients who
have not had dialysis for days. Many people are coming in very dehydrated. A
couple of women came here in labour.

"Our crews have been working non-stop for 24 hours and more. We are having
to strip our ambulances for equipment so people can be treated on the
helicopters. Some are so weak they can't even walk from the helicopter to
the roadside. They are telling us, 'There are hundreds more people in our
neighbourhood, please help them'."

He added: "We have cell-phones that don't work, we have satellite phones but
they're not working either and the Emergency Medical Services radio system
is overtaxed. It is a very, very trying situation."

William Autry was waiting to be put on a bus and evacuated west with his two
dogs - the only possessions he brought as his house disappeared under the
deluge. He and his wife, who became separated after she took refuge in their
garage, were among the lucky ones.

As the waters continued to rise in New Orleans, the Pentagon began mounting
the biggest search-and-rescue operation in US history, sending four navy
ships to the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other supplies, along with
the hospital ship USNS Comfort, search helicopters and eight swift-water
rescue teams.

Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the region.

The rescue operation was further hampered by outbreaks of looting in some
neighbourhoods, prompting authorities to send more than 70 extra officers
and an armoured personnel carrier into the city.

A Wal-Mart in New Orleans was raided and its entire gun collection taken.
One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to
recover.

"There are gangs of armed men moving around," said Terry Ebbert, the city's
homeland security chief. At one stage, a shark was reportedly spotted in the
waters.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it planned to use heavy-duty helicopters to
drop 3,000lb sandbags into the 500ft gap in New Orleans' failed floodwall.

But the agency said it was having trouble getting the sandbags and dozens of
15ft highway barriers to the site because the city's waterways were blocked
by loose barges, boats and large debris.

Officials were also studying a more audacious plan - finding a barge to plug
the hole.

"We are looking at 12 to 16 weeks before people can come in," Mr Nagin said.
"The other issue that's concerning me is, we have dead bodies in the water.
At some point in time the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious
disease issue."

Government officials declared a public health emergency for the entire Gulf
Coast, saying that life in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was "very
dangerous".

And Queen Elizabeth sent a message of sympathy, saying she was "shocked and
saddened" by the disaster.
       
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