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Gerard Gorman of the New York Fire Department kneels during a Catholic Mass held in New Orleans on the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. NY firefighters are assisting with recovery efforts there.

REUTERS September 11, 2005

Some Signs of Hope in New Orleans
Reuters

NEW ORLEANS (Sept. 11) - All the dead from Hurricane Katrina had not yet been recovered, and staggering destruction littered block after block of New Orleans, but there were signs of hope in and around the nearly empty city on Sunday.
. . .
There was good news from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said it will take half the time originally thought to pump the city dry -- 40 days not 80. Forty-seven pumps were pulling water poisoned with chemicals, gasoline and sewage out of the historic below-sea level city.

New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport will reopen to passenger traffic on Tuesday and was already open for freight traffic.

... the fear of a death toll numbering in the thousands in New Orleans that some officials predicted had not come true -- though the search for victims was far from over.

A Time Magazine poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe New Orleans should be rebuilt, with a better levee system to protect against another flooding catastrophe like the one caused by the storm that came ashore August 29.

. . . the city where 450,000 once lived faced long-term disruption. Some may never return to ruined homes. The New Orleans Times Picayune reported on Saturday that Mayor Ray Nagin had bought a house in Dallas and moved his family there. Nagin said he would return to New Orleans and make occasional visits to his family.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on NBC's "Meet the Press" he had the impression Bush was badly informed in the immediate aftermath of the storm which flooded his city, stranding thousands of people unwilling or unable to evacuate.

"I think the president for some reason probably did not understand the full magnitude of this catastrophe on the front end," said Nagin, who is himself facing severe criticism for his performance.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco could not reach either Bush or his chief of staff on the day the hurricane hit and had to leave a message pleading for help with a low level adviser, Time magazine reported.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Bush seemed to lack empathy for those stranded by the hurricane, which devastated a large swathe of the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, driving around a million people from their homes.

"It's puzzling, given his immediate response during 9/11, that he did not feel a greater sense of empathy toward the folks that were experiencing this enormous disaster," Obama said on ABC's "This Week."

He said the Bush administration was excellent at public relations but less effective when it came to action.

By boat and on foot, firefighters, soldiers and trained mortuary workers pried open doors and cut their way through walls across the city.

They found bodies and even survivors, still clinging to life where they had been trapped since the storm smashed levees that had held back Lake Pontchartrain.

"I thought there would be thousands of dead but it seems it's a lot less," said Staff Sgt. Jason Geranen of the 82nd Airborne Division following a search on Saturday.

"We keep going because we are still finding some survivors. There was one yesterday, another one today," Perry Peake, who heads a search and rescue team, said Saturday. "You can't just leave people behind."

Bush has suffered from the political fall-out.

A Newsweek poll found his approval rating at its lowest -- 38 percent. The survey found 53 percent of Americans no longer trusted him to make correct decisions in a foreign or domestic crisis, compared to 45 percent who did.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, attacked by civic officials and politicians for underestimating a disaster that eventually uprooted a million people, said it had distributed $688 million in aid to displaced families in "record time." The money went to nearly 268,000 households in Louisiana, 52,000 in Mississippi and 12,000 in Alabama, it said.

Some federal officials have put Katrina's cost at between $100 billion and $200 billion. Congress has approved $62.3 billion for hurricane relief sought by Bush, who said further requests will come.

There has been an outpouring of private donations, from across the United States and abroad. The American Red Cross said it has received $503 million in gifts and pledges for hurricane relief and has been able to provide 6 million meals and operate 675 shelters in 23 states. The organization, which has 36,000 volunteers in the field, said it is seeking 40,000 more.

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