Error processing SSI file
D.J. Kelly waves the flag as members of the National Guard arrive in the city to evacuate survivors and ease chaos.Salvation arrives for survivors
NEW ORLEANS -- Planes, trains and buses delivered evacuees to safety on Saturday as the evacuation of this ruined city finally appeared to pick up steam.
Buses had transported most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome by early morning. At the equally squalid convention center, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant.
More than 50,000 people had been trapped for days at the two filthy, sweltering buildings, suffering from a lack of food, water or medical attention. Help came too late or a number of them -- dead bodies were a common sight, in wheelchairs, wrapped in blankets or just abandoned.
Thousands of people were at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where fewer than 200 remained in a medical triage unit where officials said 3,000 to 5,000 people had been treated since the beginning of the storm.
"The hallways are filled, the floors are filled. There are thousands of people there," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who was at the airport. "A lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day. It's a distribution problem. The doctors are doing a great job, the nurses are doing a great job."
Since the cavalry arrived in New Orleans on Friday, more than 25,000 residents have been evacuated, Mike Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said at a briefing Saturday morning in Baton Rouge.
Both the number of people left in the city and the death toll remained unknown, because people continued showing up at evacuation sites and dead bodies were still being counted, Brown said.
"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said at the briefing.
Earlier this week, Mayor Ray Nagin said he expected the death toll to reach the thousands. That figure was echoed Saturday by Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Craig Vanderwagen, read admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a prison in St. Gabriel, expected to end up with 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
At the convention center, Yolanda Sanders stood at a barricade clutching her cocker spaniel, Toto. She had been waiting to be evacuated for five days.
"I had faith that they'd come. I feel good that I know I can get to my family," she said. Sanders didn't know yet where they were taking her, but "anyplace is better than here. People are dying over there."
Evacuees filed past corpses to get to the buses and left garbage bags and suitcases full of belongings at the side of the road because there was no room. National Guardsmen confiscated knives and letter openers from people before they got on the buses.
Helicopters were removing the sickest people from the center, and two of the city's most troubled hospitals were evacuated Friday after desperate doctors spent days making tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines.
"We're just trying to ease their pain, give them a little bit of dignity and get them out of here," said Lt. Col. Connie McNabb.
At the south end of the convention center, hundreds of people stumbled toward helicopters, dehydrated and nearly passing out from exhaustion. Many had to be carried on stretchers by National Guard troops and police. And some were being pushed up the street on office chairs and dollies.
A Saks Fifth Avenue store billowed smoke Saturday, as did rows of warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where corrugated roofs buckled and tiny explosions erupted. Gunfire -- almost two dozen shots -- broke out in the French Quarter overnight.
As the warehouse district burned, Ron Seitzer, 61, washed his dirty laundry in the even dirtier waters of the Mississippi River and said he didn't know how much longer he could stay without water or power, surrounded by looters.
National Guard Lt. Col. Jerry Crooks said troops had served more than 70,000 meals outside the convention center and had 130,000 more on hand.
Within minutes of the soldiers' arrival at the convention center, they set up six food and water lines. The crowd was for the most part orderly and grateful.
Diane Sylvester, 49, was the first person through the line. "Something is better than nothing," she said of her two bottles of water and pork rib meal. "I feel great to see the military here. I know I'm saved."
Comment on this story
Copyright © 2005
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).