Breaking News: Plan to evacuate New Orleans
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Breaking News: Plan to evacuate New Orleans
LA. Govenor is preparing a plan now to evacuate EVERYONE from New Orleans... press conference on tv now
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Governor says entire city needs to be evacuated
By DOUG SIMPSON Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La.
With conditions in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans rapidly deteriorating, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday that people now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers need to be evacuated.
"The situation is untenable," Blanco said during a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking."
Because two levees broke Tuesday, the city was rapidly filling with water and the prospect of having power was a long time off, the governor said. She said the storm also severed a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water.
"The goal is to bring enough supplies to sustain the people until we can establish a network to get them out," Blanco said.
Blanco's comments came after she flew to New Orleans with FEMA director Mike Brown and other officials. They stopped at the Superdome, where Mayor Ray Nagin outlined the dire situation: hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still need rescuing from rooftops and attics, he said.
The governor said that at midnight, all of the boat operators trying to rescue people from rooftops were told to take a break.
"They refused. They couldn't do it," Blanco said.
Blanco said rescuers were unable to get to people stranded in one tall building because so many other people were "calling to them and jumping from rooftops" into the water to be rescued first.
Things are so bad, Nagin said, that rescue boats are bypassing the dead.
"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."
Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, adjutant general for the Louisiana National Guard, said search and rescue teams are still picking up people throughout the city, leaving them on island-like highway overpasses and on the Mississippi River levee to wait until they can be moved again.
They will eventually end up in the Superdome, where he estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people already have taken refuge and rising water is threatening the generators.
As the FEMA helicopter left, with Sen. Mary Landrieu looking out the window, a group of people smashed a window at a convenience store off the interstate in Metairie, and jumped in _ an apparent looter.
Nagin said some of the looting is by drug addicts, who hit drug stores, and by people looking for food.
Police chief Eddie Compass said police are mainly focused on search and rescue.
"We'll deal with looting afterward," Compass said. "Human life is our top priority."
Nagin confirmed a death at the Superdome. He said someone attempted to jump from one level to the lower and died.
Nagin said 75 to 80 percent of the New Orleans area is flooded.
Nagin said there are two major breaks in levees _ one at Florida Ave. in New Orleans East and another on the 17th Street Canal, where two or three blocks of concrete levee blew out.
Because of the 17th Street Canal break, Lake Pontchartrain water is pouring down into the city. Nagin said the pumps which normally protect the city are working, but since they send water into the lake it does not good.
He said the Corps of Engineers is trying to sandbag the break but he had no timeline for their efforts.
Levees seem to be holding everywhere else, he said.
By DOUG SIMPSON Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La.
With conditions in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans rapidly deteriorating, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday that people now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers need to be evacuated.
"The situation is untenable," Blanco said during a news conference. "It's just heartbreaking."
Because two levees broke Tuesday, the city was rapidly filling with water and the prospect of having power was a long time off, the governor said. She said the storm also severed a major water main, leaving the city without drinkable water.
"The goal is to bring enough supplies to sustain the people until we can establish a network to get them out," Blanco said.
Blanco's comments came after she flew to New Orleans with FEMA director Mike Brown and other officials. They stopped at the Superdome, where Mayor Ray Nagin outlined the dire situation: hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still need rescuing from rooftops and attics, he said.
The governor said that at midnight, all of the boat operators trying to rescue people from rooftops were told to take a break.
"They refused. They couldn't do it," Blanco said.
Blanco said rescuers were unable to get to people stranded in one tall building because so many other people were "calling to them and jumping from rooftops" into the water to be rescued first.
Things are so bad, Nagin said, that rescue boats are bypassing the dead.
"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."
Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, adjutant general for the Louisiana National Guard, said search and rescue teams are still picking up people throughout the city, leaving them on island-like highway overpasses and on the Mississippi River levee to wait until they can be moved again.
They will eventually end up in the Superdome, where he estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people already have taken refuge and rising water is threatening the generators.
As the FEMA helicopter left, with Sen. Mary Landrieu looking out the window, a group of people smashed a window at a convenience store off the interstate in Metairie, and jumped in _ an apparent looter.
Nagin said some of the looting is by drug addicts, who hit drug stores, and by people looking for food.
Police chief Eddie Compass said police are mainly focused on search and rescue.
"We'll deal with looting afterward," Compass said. "Human life is our top priority."
Nagin confirmed a death at the Superdome. He said someone attempted to jump from one level to the lower and died.
Nagin said 75 to 80 percent of the New Orleans area is flooded.
Nagin said there are two major breaks in levees _ one at Florida Ave. in New Orleans East and another on the 17th Street Canal, where two or three blocks of concrete levee blew out.
Because of the 17th Street Canal break, Lake Pontchartrain water is pouring down into the city. Nagin said the pumps which normally protect the city are working, but since they send water into the lake it does not good.
He said the Corps of Engineers is trying to sandbag the break but he had no timeline for their efforts.
Levees seem to be holding everywhere else, he said.
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