Engineers battling pumps in hurricane-stricken New Orleans say water is pumping almost twice as fast as they initially projected. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the primary flood area of Orleans Parish could be dry by Oct. 2, while other areas could be dried out sooner. The timetable ranges from Sept. 20-Oct. 18, depending on the level of rainfall. However the task of restoring clean drinking water could take months.
Promising "this great city will rise again," President Bush dedicated the federal government on Thursday to "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen" and pledged that it would pay most of the costs. Bush put no price tag on the overall effort or his proposals to help evacuees find jobs and give them a chance to get free federal land for new homes. So far, the government has spent more than $13.7 billion of the $62.3 billion approved by Congress. The final cost is expected to be much higher.
Trying to gain the offensive against one of the worst natural disasters to hit the United States, President Bush in a Thursday night address to the nation promised "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen." But in calling "all Americans" to join a "common effort" to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina's destruction, Bush left unclear what ordinary Americans could expect in the way of sacrifice beyond the macroeconomic effects of higher federal budget deficits and the microeconomic effects of higher energy prices.
President Bush's Thursday address was brief, but it lasted long enough to draw a healthy mixture of reactions from New Orleans evacuees gathered at Red Cross shelter in Alexandria, La. More reactions from evacuees in Monroe, La.
Congress on Thursday swiftly approved billions of dollars in tax cuts to Hurricane Katrina victims and those who have helped or employed them. The House and Senate tax plans would waive penalties for hurricane victims who tap into their retirement savings accounts and provide a tax break to anyone who houses an evacuee for two months or more. The legislation also would provide a tax credit to employers who hire workers from Katrina-affected areas.
The intensive-care unit at Lindy Boggs Medical Center in New Orleans was devastated. Just 48 hours after Hurricane Katrina struck, the hospital's generators had failed. There was no blood for transfusions and very little medication besides morphine. Today, the 187-bed hospital is empty; 19 bodies have been removed. But the story of the struggle to stay alive there in the dark days after the hurricane underscores the chaos, anger and desperation that overwhelmed the city.
For Thursday, Sept. 15
President Bush will tell the nation Thursday night that he's committed to rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, while eliminating the poverty and joblessness that were exposed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco Wednesday asked the federal government to pay all of Louisiana's costs for recovering from Hurricane Katrina. If that occurs, it would mark only the second time Washington has picked up the full tab for rebuilding after a multibillion disaster.
Childhood sweethearts Yolanda Joseph and Anthony Love's plans to tie the knot always were interrupted first by a family tragedy and then by Hurricane Katrina. Now, however, American Red Cross volunteers and other donors are helping the displaced New Orleans couple get the wedding of their dreams.
A makeshift clinic that operated in a central Mississippi couple's residence in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck was ordered closed Tuesday. Forrest County, Miss., Sheriff Billy McGee says his department had received a request from the state to check whether the clinic was open after a Sept. 7 article about it appeared in the Hattiesburg American. "We went there and found out that they weren't practicing medicine and they were not set up like a hospital," McGee says. "We told them that if they got more people, to send them to Forrest General. There was no reason anymore to treat people on off-site locations."
Betty McQueen has been staying with family since Hurricane Katrina made her mobile home on the Biloxi River unlivable, but she said her situation is better than her friends in a neighboring home. "My neighbors are staying in a house with five families," she says. With coastal residents such as McQueen now looking ahead, housing has become the Mississippi's biggest problem, says Gov. Haley Barbour. And while mobile homes are being moved in, he says they cannot come fast enough.
Down but not out is the best way to describe the state of Mississippi's forestry trade, which could lose nearly $1.3 billion to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. But the hardship that affects landowners in 38 counties shouldn't impact consumers, says Ian Munn, professor of forest economics and management at Mississippi State University, because the timber industry in other parts of the state and the rest of the country will pick up the slack.
New Orleans showed signs of coming back to life this week, with business owners retrieving vital records, pumps draining water from office basements, and river traffic moving again. The ongoing search-and-rescue operation yielded many more survivors, including a 95-year-old woman immobilized in her home house.