WRAPUP 2-Bodies, gunfire and chaos in New Orleans' streets

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N91208497.htm

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Rotting bodies littered New Orleans' streets on Thursday and troops headed in to control looting and violence, as thousands of desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina pleaded to be evacuated from the flooded city, or even just fed.

The historic jazz city became a playground for armed looters, and sporadic gunfire hampered chaotic and widely criticized rescue efforts.

The mayhem in New Orleans, after Katrina's attack on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday, resembled a refugee crisis in a Third World hot spot. There was a television report that a sniper opened fire on rescue workers as they tried to evacuate sick patients from a flooded hospital.

Bodies lay in the streets and attackers armed with axes and steel pipes stripped hospitals of medicine. Authorities said they feared thousands of people were dead but they could still only guess at the death toll. One victim was left abandoned in a wheelchair with just a sheet covering the corpse.

[MnFats]

1. Fucking FIVE DAYS ON....chaos just gets worse...THANKS GWB!

Gawdamn but it must be frightening to be holed up in that city....can you imagine what it would be like at night? Pitch black, no electricity?
Someone's there; "Come down here. We're the police"

"Shhh. Keep quiet, kids. WE don't know for a fact that they're cops. Or even that cops want to help us.'

[ElectroPrincess]

2. No, FEMA Director, Michael Brown says that there's MREs

in a truck - On the way to the convention center ... should arrive at any minute! In fact, Brown didn't know that people were hungry until hours ago. .... :puke:

[benburch]

3. EP, Have you ever seen anything as badly handled in your LIFE? nt

[celestia671]

5. Is this really a surprise?

Look at the way they've 'handled' Iraq!

[Ilsa]

7. No, Brown said on The NewsHour that they had been getting their 3 squares

a day and water since they got moved into the dome. Either he is lying, or someone is lying to him.

[tanyev]

9. I saw that too. Flabbergasting.

[Journeyman]

6. You're so right. . .

During times of disaster and social upheaval, "Help! Police!" can be both a call for assistance and a cry of warning.

[VegasWolf]

4. Sure is comforting to see how Republicans handle a national

catastrophe. Not. But Bush is Praying!

[Danmel]

8. It is like something out of "The Lord of the Flies"

I can't believe this is America in 2005. It is truly mind boggling. God save us all.