www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orlean s emerged Thursday, with statements by some federal officials in contrad iction with grittier, more desperate views from the streets. By late Fri day response to those stranded in the city was more visible. But the conflicting views on Thursday came within hours, sometimes minute s of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency , Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nag in, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others.
The children, you shoul d see them, they're all just in tears. Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdo me or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, wa s no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure . Uncollected corpses Brown: That's not been reported to me, so I'm not going to comment. Unt il I actually get a report from my teams that say, "We have bodies locat ed here or there," I'm just not going to speculate. A person is in a wheelchair and someone had pus hed (her) off to the side and draped just like a blanket over this perso n in the wheelchair.
See CNN report, 'People are dying in front of us' -- 4:36 ) Evacuee Cooper: They had a couple of policemen out here, sir, about six or seven policemen told me directly, when I went to tell them, hey, man , you got bodies in there. You got two old ladies that just passed, just had died, people dragging the bodies into little corners. The guy had actually, hey, man, anybody sleeping o ver here? Now you just -- I just found out there was a lady and an old man, the lady went to nudge him. Hospital evacuations Brown: I've just learned today that we ... are in the process of comple ting the evacuations of the hospitals, that those are going very well. If you think about a hospital, for example, the morgue is in the b asement, and the basement is completely flooded. But when patients die in the hospital, there is n o place to put them, so they're in the stairwells. It is one of the most unbelievable situations I've seen as a doctor, certainly as a journalis t as well. We found our way in through a chopper and had to land at a landing strip and then take a boat. where the boat was traveling where the snipers opened fire yester day, halting all the evacuations.
Watch the video report of corpse s stacked in stairwells -- 4:45 ) Dr. Matthew Bellew, Charity Hospital: We still have 200 patients in thi s hospital, many of them needing care that they just can't get. The cond itions are such that it's very dangerous for the patients. Just about al l the patients in our services had fevers. And the smell, if you can imagine, is so bad, you know, many of us had gagging and some people even threw up.
Mayor's video: Armed addicts fighting for a f ix -- 1:03) Violence and civil unrest Brown: I've had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word un rest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they're bangi ng on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. CNN's Chris Lawrence: From here and from talking to the police officers , they're losing control of the city. We're now standing on the roof of one of the police stations. The police officers came by and told us in v ery, very strong terms it wasn't safe to be out on the street.
Watc h the video report on explosions and gunfire -- 2:12) The federal response: Brown: Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively we ll. Homeland Security Director Chertoff: Now, of course, a critical element of what we're doing is the process of evacuation and securing New Orlea ns and other areas that are afflicted. And here the Department of Defens e has performed magnificently, as has the National Guard, in bringing en ormous resources and capabilities to bear in the areas that are sufferin g Crowd chanting outside the Convention Center: We want help. Nagin: They don't have a clue what's going on down there. Phyllis Petrich, a tourist stranded at the Ritz-Carlton: They are invis ible. We hear bits and pieces that the N ational Guard is around, but where? Security Brown: I actually think the security is pretty darn good. There's some really bad people out there that are causing some problems, and it seems to me that every time a bad person wants to scream of cause a problem, there's somebody there with a camera to stick it in their face.
Se e Jack Cafferty's rant on the government's 'bungled' response -- 0:57) Chertoff: In addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. One thousand four hundred additi onal National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving ev ery day: 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day. Nagin: I continue to hear that troops are on the way, but we are still protecting the city with only 1,500 New Orleans police officers, an addi tional 300 law enforcement personnel, 250 National Guard troops, and oth er military personnel who are primarily focused on evacuation. They're literally riding around, full assault weapons, full tactical gear, in pickup truck s Five, six, seven, eight officers.
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