This appears to be good news – it looks as if the National Guard is moving in, at least partially:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.impact/index.html
(CNN) – A convoy of military vehicles plowed through the flooded streets of New Orleans on Friday bringing food, water and medicine to the thousands of people trapped at a downtown convention center.
The relief effort came as President Bush toured the Gulf Coast to survey damage from Hurricane Katrina and shortly after the mayor of New Orleans said the city was “holding on by a thread.”
The Associated Press reported a large oil spill spotted in the Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans, state officials said.
The oil was seen during a flyover to the Venice area by the Department of Environmental Quality, the AP reported.
Venice is about 75 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was directing the deployment of National Guard troops – expected to number 1,000 – from a New Orleans street corner. (See video of the convoy roll through floodwaters – 3:33)
Honore said getting food and water to the people at the convention center was a difficult process. “If you ever have 20,000 people come to supper, you know what I’m talking about,” the general said. “If it was easy, it would have been done already.”
CNN’s Barbara Starr, who is traveling with the three-star general, said Honore is “very determined to keep this looking like a humanitarian relief operation.” (See the mayor’s order to stop the talking and send soldiers to help – 1:00)
“A few moments ago, he stopped a truck full of National Guard troops … and said, ‘Point your weapons down, this is not Iraq,’” Starr reported.
Authorities were working to evacuate the Ernest Morial Convention Center, trying to help the weakest people first.
Evacuees in and around the crowded building described harrowing conditions.
“There’s no food. There’s no water. There’s shooting. They’re killing people,” evacuee Tishia Walters told CNN from inside the center. “They’re robbing men in the restrooms, they’re raping women trying to go to the restroom. So people have resorted to defecating on the floors. You can’t walk. There’s babies without Pampers, mammas without milk. It’s chaos total chaos.”
Mayor Ray Nagin said in a statement that more than 10,000 people were evacuated from the city Thursday but that more than 50,000 survivors were still on rooftops and in shelters, in urgent need of help.
Earlier, Nagin lashed out at state and federal authorities saying they were “thinking small” in the face of the massive crisis. (See the mayor’s demand for national leaders to ‘get off their asses’ – 12:09)