Mayor finds hope

As floodwaters begin to pour out of the city, foreign aid is on the way.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NEW ORLEANS -- As floodwaters slowly receded Tuesday, more bodies surfaced and many more are expected, even as a new tropical threat lurked offshore. But some shafts of light split the grim Gulf Coast reality.
First, the shadow: A storm developing just off Florida's east coast could strike as a hurricane by this weekend, threatening to further tax a nation already overwhelmed by disaster.
Next, the light: Officials in New Orleans and some other affected areas said water finally began to flow out; relief supplies finally flowed in; order began to be restored, and -- here and there -- even a hint of normalcy began to sprout.
In Washington, President Bush acknowledged the withering criticism of his administration's initial response to Hurricane Katrina, and said he would lead an investigation into the failures and vowed to build on the progress that emerged in recent days.
"This administration is not going to rest," Bush said, "until every life is saved, until every family is reconnected, until the recovery is complete."
Next phase
The administration will seek $40 billion to $50 billion for the next phase of storm relief, according to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who said the federal share ultimately could reach $150 billion. Katrina will dominate Congress "for the foreseeable future," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
Forecasters said the new system, which could become Tropical Storm Ophelia today, posed no immediate danger to New Orleans or the rest of the region bulldozed last week by Hurricane Katrina.
But they couldn't rule out the possibility that, like Katrina, it would cross Florida, enter the Gulf of Mexico and veer toward the already ravaged upper Gulf Coast. Even if it tracked outside the region, it could drain already depleted U.S. emergency-response capacities.
Some neighborhoods in New Orleans dried out Tuesday, but 60 percent of the city remained under water, and more hints emerged of horrors ahead.
Rescue efforts
Rescue workers went door to door on foot and by boat Tuesday, desperately trying to persuade the living to leave. Other teams set out to continue retrieving the dead, a process with no end in sight.
The confirmed death toll from Hurricane Katrina rose to 83 in Louisiana on Tuesday, but officials have warned that the number could reach into the thousands.
The identification process hasn't begun on the victims, said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. He said families eventually would be asked to provide materials to help identify bodies. Fingerprints, photographs, X-rays and DNA samples will be used throughout the process.
In the Lower Ninth Ward, where the search for bodies and survivors intensified, Bill Moore, an urban search-and-rescue expert, said he saw "a handful of bodies, and I'm a guy who's had minimal time in the water."
"This is a thousand times worse than I expected," said Moore, who has 30 years of experience. "It's just disgusting."
Patricia Kelly, 41, camped on the porch of a nearby beauty-and-barber shop, waiting to learn if her relatives had been found.
"Family members are scattered all around," she said. "I hope they're alive. I just have to believe in the Lord."
Mayor speaks
A day after he raised the possibility of 10,000 deaths, Mayor Ray Nagin again spoke in dire terms.
"It's going to be awful, and it's going to wake the nation up again," he said on NBC's "Today" program.
Four major fires erupted in the city, and Nagin said toxic wastes pollute the floodwaters. He again insisted that all remaining residents leave immediately.
"There's a health risk," he said. "There are toxins in the water. There are gas leaks where we may have explosions."
He said three weeks would pass before the waters fully recede. Debris removal and power restoration will take even longer.
Turning the corner
But several streams of good news also appeared, and Nagin said he had a sense that the city had begun to "turn the corner."
"We are starting to see some significant progress," he said. "I'm starting to see rays of light all throughout what we're doing."
With a major breach in the levee repaired and two main pumping stations back in operation, more water poured out of the city, and authorities said they had restored order among the relative few who remained in a city that 10 days ago resounded with 485,000 people.
"The violence that has occurred in the city has subsided completely, and we have complete control of the city," said Warren Riley, deputy chief of New Orleans' police force.
Meanwhile, school districts elsewhere in Louisiana and in states near and far struggled to cope with the sudden influx of young evacuees. Katrina is believed to have displaced about 1 million people in all, many of them children.
"Every parish in the general region is being literally flooded with students," said Michael Acaldo of St. Vincent de Paul Charities in Louisiana. "We're quite overwhelmed. We've never seen a need so great as this."
Investigation
During a day at the White House devoted largely to disaster relief, Bush acknowledged problems, but he suggested that all levels of government shared the blame. He said he would send Vice President Dick Cheney to the region Thursday for a new assessment of recovery efforts.
"It's very important for us to understand the relationship between the federal government, the state government and the local government when it comes to a major catastrophe," he told reporters after meeting with his Cabinet. "I'm going to find out over time what went right and what went wrong."
Bush's pledge to investigate his administration came as members of Congress geared up for their own inquiries. Lawmakers in both parties have called for hearings on the government's response to the hurricane and the disastrous floods that quickly followed.
"The first obligation of government is to protect its citizens," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whose Homeland Security Committee will begin hearings this week. "In its initial response to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, particularly in Louisiana, governments at all levels failed in this obligation."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., angrily denounced the failure to get help to evacuees who had gathered at the Superdome.
"What in heaven's name was happening?" Leahy asked.
"If the press could get in and out of there, could bring in their TV trucks and everything else, why the hell couldn't a truckload of water, a truckload of medicine, a busload of physicians, people who could bring help and care and hope to the people -- why couldn't they get through?"
At the same time, foreign assistance began to arrive on the Gulf Coast.
The French government said an aircraft from Martinique with 6.1 tons of tents, tarps and food was en route to Little Rock, Ark., and another would land in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday.