06:20 AM CDT on Monday, September 12, 2005

Tom Planchet

SUNDAY - 9:18 P.M. - (AP): President Bush, eager to show hands-on leadership in the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery effort, joined commanders working from a military ship docked in this flooded city on Sunday.

The president visited firefighters who have been battling the blazes that persistently erupt across the city, then was sleeping on the USS Iwo Jima. The amphibious assault ship is serving as a control center in the relief efforts.

On Monday, he planned to tour the New Orleans area and Gulfport, Miss., in his third and longest visit to the region in the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding struck.

6:39 P.M. - HOUSTON (AP): Louisiana had a "well thought-out exit plan," in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina and many more lives would have been lost without it, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Sunday.

"There was not a single individual taking a slow step in our state," Blanco said at the Reliant Center, where more than 2,000 evacuees are still living after fleeing the devastation in New Orleans.

"I personally, and everybody I knew, begged people to leave before the storm came in. We had a very systematic, well thought-out exit plan. Hundreds of thousands left," she said. "We simply didn't have the infrastructure."

Government officials on the city, state and federal levels have been criticized for delays in evacuations and delivery of supplies, communications problems and law enforcement problems that led to looting and violence. Blanco, a Democrat, refused to blame President Bush, who is a Republican.

"He committed help to me," she said. "Help in those critical moments was slow in coming, not through any fault of the president."

In a tense 14-minute answer to a question asking her to elaborate on her comments about Louisiana's storm plans, Blanco insisted state officials had an evacuation and rescue effort that prevented thousands more deaths.

"Were there lessons learned? You bet," she said. "We did a massive evacuation and if we hadn't we would have had thousands of deaths. Right now the numbers are minimal when you consider the amount of damage."

6:29 P.M. - (AP): Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport director Roy Williams says he expects about 30 departures and arrivals of passenger planes a day when the airport reopens Tuesday -- far below the usual 174.

6:13 P.M. - (AP): Authorities raised Louisiana's death toll to 197 on Sunday, and recovery of corpses continued. Teams pulled an unspecified number of bodies from Memorial Medical Center, a 317-bed hospital in uptown New Orleans that closed more than a week ago after being surrounded by floodwaters.

6:10 P.M. - (AP): The first major airlift of canine refugees from the hurricane battered Gulf Coast headed out of Louisiana on Sunday with about 80 dogs bound for new temporary homes in California.

The Continental Airlines flight from Baton Rouge, La., was chartered for about $50,000 by Texas oil tycoon Boone Pickens and his wife, Madeleine, in a movement dubbed by organizers as "Operation Pet Lift."

5:36 P.M. - HOUSTON (AP): About 2,000 Muslim volunteers helped victims of Hurricane Katrina at the city's downtown convention center Sunday, the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Muslim leaders from around the country who were in Houston for the volunteer effort said the anniversary was coincidental. But they welcomed the opportunity to highlight their faith's true meaning.

"We're not trying to prove anything, other than what our faith requires us to do," said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Muslim American Society. "What goes with our faith is to help others, to respond and show compassion when people need it, and I'm glad we can do it."

5:31 P.M. - (AP): Beginning Monday, officials of businesses in the New Orleans central business district will be able to get temporary passes so that they can retrieve vital records and equipment.

Business owners or representatives should call the New Orleans Police Department police at 504-599-5541 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. for information on how to obtain the pass, which will allow entry into the city from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., said Trooper Johnny Brown, a state police spokesman.

The passes will allow employers and business owners access to payroll records, computer drives or other items business owners might need to operate outside of New Orleans, Brown said.

Overnight stays will not be allowed, Brown said.

5:26 P.M. - (AP): LSU Head Coach Les Miles: "This is not a made-for-TV movie. This was a real-life trauma where friends and family had to stay in the dorms and the town swelled to take in the New Orleans evacuees. We are treating people that are injured and disadvantaged 200 yards from our stadium. We have a scrimmage, and Blackhawk helicopters are flying people from New Orleans over our heads."

5:07 P.M. - BATON ROUGE (AP): Military cargo airplanes specially fitted for insect control will begin spraying the New Orleans area on Monday to kill flies and mosquitoes, a federal public health official said.

Floods from Hurricane Katrina are expected to exacerbate southeastern Louisiana's already considerable mosquito problem. Before the storm hit, the state had logged 78 cases of mosquito-borne West Nile virus, including four deaths.

Adm. Craig Vanderwagen, director of the U.S. Public Health Service, said C-130 planes from the Ohio Air National Guard will spray the chemical Naled to control mosquitoes and flies in the New Orleans area.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency says that the chemical is safe for inhabited areas when used according to the manufacturer's standards. The chemical is routinely applied in concentrations well below those that would pose any health risk, according to the EPA.

Pesticides sprayed from trucks are routinely used in New Orleans to control mosquitoes.

Also during Sunday's post-Katrina briefing on public health, the EPA's Samuel Coleman said flood waters in the New Orleans area have been found to contain unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria and that levels of chemical pollution in the water and sludge left behind were still being assessed.

However, there have been no major outbreaks of disease reported so far in Katrina's wake, he said.

Officials also said five hospitals are now operating in the New Orleans, making 500 beds available. Those hospitals include Ochsner, near the New Orleans-Jefferson Parish line, East Jefferson and West Jefferson hospitals in Jefferson Parish, and Northshore in Slidell, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

3:36 P.M. -SLIDELL (AP): "I've probably been to hell and back," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said as she traipsed back to a military helicopter that would lift her from this hurricane-ravaged city back to Baton Rouge.

Her eyes were bleary but she looked fitter than she had in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina's Aug. 29 strike. Waylaid by one reporter after another, she granted interviews until it was too dark Saturday night to make an aerial sweep of the north shore city where City Hall, the police station and three fire stations were inundated. Click here.

3:32 P.M. - (AP): To troops, he's the "Ragin' Cajun," an affable but demanding general barking orders to resuscitate a drowning city. To his country, he's an icon of leadership in a land hungry for a leader after a hurricane exposed the nation's vulnerability to disasters.

With a can-do attitude and a cigar in hand, Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore arrived after Hurricane Katrina and directed troops to point weapons down in respect for a stunned and stranded population lacking food, electricity and safety. Click here.

3:25 P.M. - (AP): Workers here were picking up trash Sunday, a small miracle under the circumstances. The airport opened to cargo traffic. A bullhorn-wielding volunteer led relief workers in a chorus of "Amazing Grace."

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina's onslaught, the day was marked by signs that hopelessness was beginning to lift in this shattered city. While the final toll from the disaster remains unknown, there were indications New Orleans had begun to turn a corner.

"You see the cleaning of the streets. You see the people coming out," said the volunteer with the bullhorn, Norman Flowers. "The people aren't as afraid anymore."

Flowers, deployed by the Southern Baptist Convention, stood in the bed of a pickup truck on Canal Street, leading police, firefighters and relief workers in song, punctuated by the exuberant honk of a fire truck nearby.

"This is a sign of progress," said New Orleans resident Linda Taylor, gesturing at the impromptu gathering. "Last Sunday, I couldn't find any church services. This Sunday, people have gathered together to worship."

Numerous residents were able to visit their homes for the first time, however briefly, as floodwaters receded and work crews cleared trees, debris and downed telephone poles from major streets.

2:56 P.M. - BATON ROUGE (AP): Worried about possibly losing hurricane refugees who already have been given housing in other states, Louisiana officials called Sunday for quicker arrangements for temporary housing closer to home.

"We don't feel the process is fast enough," Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of the state Office of Emergency Preparedness, said during a news conference. "We need to get trailers rolling and things happening that just aren't happening."

The first 10 families to get emergency housing in Louisiana moved in Saturday in Patterson, said James McIntyre, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said 5,000 mobile homes are ready for use as soon as legal details can be worked out with landowners. There are also contracts with motels and other properties, he said.

More than 58,000 people are in shelters in Louisiana and at least another 150,000 are in shelters out of state, Smith said. In addition, untold thousands are staying with friends and relatives, Smith said.

Tennessee and Texas already are providing housing for Louisiana evacuees, who are becoming assimilated into those communities and school systems, said Mark Smith of the Louisiana OEP. Mark Smith is no relation to Jeff Smith.

Mark Smith said Louisiana appreciates what those states are doing, but added: "These people are people we may lose for good."

Asked what else FEMA could have done, he said: "They could have gotten in with quick strikes by putting trailers into state parks and we offered state parks."

Because of the scale of the damage, and because many homes may be inaccessible for months or longer, FEMA needs to not only bring in housing but also look for ways to develop support systems -- including means of transportation to grocery stores and other services for urban dwellers who may find themselves in rural housing environments, said Jeff Smith.

"This is massive. Nobody has ever done this before. Get some housing on the ground," Jeff Smith said.

"We've asked them to start thinking outside the box and get something moving on this."

2:40 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Louisiana's senior U.S. senator is accusing the White House of a "full court press" to blame state and local officials for the slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

Democrat Mary Landrieu says officials at all levels eventually will share blame for the response. But on CBS' "Face the Nation," Landrieu said that only the Bush administration is pointing the finger.

On "Fox News Sunday," Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana said he would give "the entire big government relief effort a failing grade, across the board." Viter added that state and local governments also share in the blame.

1:33 P.M. - CONWAY, Ark. (AP): An Arkansas appeals court judge criticized the federal government's response to the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster and said it reflected the country's racism and classism.

Wendell Griffen, a minister and a parliamentarian for one of the nation's largest black organizations, told a state convention of the NAACP, "It is now time for us to hold everyone accountable, beginning with the people in charge."

1:17 P.M. - ALBUQUERQUE (AP): The last of the Hurricane Katrina refugees have left a temporary shelter at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The shelter was closed Friday around noon, said Red Cross spokeswoman Kathy Komoll. She said the Red Cross remains on standby to accept any more refugees who might come from other states that are overwhelmed.

The 28 refugees who remained in the center Friday were moved into apartments, said Valorie Vigil, director of the city's Family and Community Services Department.

12:06 P.M. - BATON ROUGE (AP): The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopened for cargo traffic on Sunday and there will be limited passenger service beginning Tuesday, the airport's director said.

Roy Williams said he expects about 30 departures and arrivals of passenger planes a day at the airport -- far below the usual 174. Katrina is costing the state about $200,000 a day in lost operating revenue, not counting what is being lost by concessionaires, Williams said. He estimated the impact on the New Orleans area economy by the loss of the airport at $40 million.

Williams said domestic carriers will be the first to return to the airport. International carriers will have to wait, in part because of hurricane roof damage to the international concourse and in part because customs areas and other areas used by international travelers are being used by civilian and military people involved in the Katrina recovery effort.

Williams estimated that the airport is currently home to about 5,000 such recovery workers. Many of them have been bedding down in the baggage handling areas and will have to be moved as airport traffic picks up, he said.

He expects the first passengers in and out of the airport will be people officially involved in government and volunteer efforts to help the region recover.

Authorities are still limiting access to New Orleans and other storm-struck areas but he acknowledged that some people hoping to return to their homes are likely to hop a plane to New Orleans regardless of the restrictions. He said he hopes people who want to fly to New Orleans will take note of where authorities are allowing people to travel.

12:01 P.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): Population shifts caused by the exodus of hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast could have ripple effects for years to come in Louisiana political races and perhaps beyond.

How big depends on how many people stay away, which ones stay away and where they end up putting down roots.

The early thinking is that the evacuees least likely to return to their homes in Louisiana may be the poorest -- and thus, Democrats for the most part. That would hurt the party in a state where Republicans already were making inroads. Click here.

11:57 A.M. - WWL-TV: The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board has announced it is launching a web message board designed to reunite members of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana seafood industry affected by Hurricane Katrina. The posting board will provide the means for fishermen to report on damages and losses to the industry by sector and location in each state. Click here to post on the message board.

11:09 A.M. - PORT FOURCHON (AP): The port that provides service to vital offshore petroleum production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico is running at half capacity because of power outages stemming from Hurricane Katrina.

Entergy Corp. has told Port Fourchon officials that it will be at least Wednesday before electricity is fully restored. Utility crews are working on power lines that run along Louisiana Highway 1, a two-lane road that cuts through marshland and connects Port Fourchon and Grand Isle to points farther north.

Mobile generators are currently powering companies that provide offshore services.

Petroleum companies are now inspecting the platforms and checking for damage to pipelines, said Davie Breaux, director of operations for the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. Breaux said that by the time supplies and equipment for repairs are ready to start loading, the power lines should be repaired and electricity running.

National Guard troops are protecting a pumping station that transports crude oil from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port to storage salt dome in Galliano.

"It's a show of force," said Lt. Sean McClellan of Lafayette. "We don't want anyone coming in here."

Port Fourchon, which was built in 1960, has doubled in size in the last decade. At peak capacity, 1,000 trucks and other vehicles per day load and unload supplies and passengers.

Katrina's eye passed east of Port Fourchon when the storm made landfall Aug. 29, causing an estimated $56 million in damage to the port, Breaux said.

11:04 A.M. - (The Advocate): A technology company in New Orleans has stayed running throughout Hurricane Katrina's hit on southeastern Louisiana and its aftermath, trying to keep Internet sites running.

Intercosmos Media Group is in a downtown building once owned by Enron Corp., which outfitted the structure with built-in generators. Company owner Sigmund Solares got the generators when he bought the building.

Information technology consultant Michael Barnett said businesses close to Intercosmos have begun calling in the past five to six days, asking Barnett's team to get computers from their offices and get them back online at the Intercosmos data center, he said.

Some companies who do business over the Internet have asked for help getting their Web sites back up, while others need computers powered back up and connected to the Internet to get critical company data such as payroll and tax records, Barnett said.

Barnett and a team of three assistants took their place two days before Katrina hit.

Groups seeking help in getting data or maintaining a Web presence include New Orleans' Contemporary Arts Center and the D-Day Museum, Barnett said. New Orleans government also has contacted the company about getting some technology assistance, he said.

Barnett said there's been no talk of fees or charges for the data rescue work.

11:01 A.M. - MONROE (AP): A former fire chief of Ouachita Parish has been sentenced to six months in jail for accepting travel expenses while using a government vehicle.

Don Nugent, 49, also was fined $3,500 on Friday by State District Judge Benjamin Jones. Nugent pleaded guilty in June to one felony count of unauthorized use of a moveable. He originally had been charged with malfeasance and public bribery.

Nugent was implicated during an investigation into corruption in parish government that included the indictment of seven other people in 2003.

From 1996 through 2002, Nugent admitted accepting $8,464 in travel expenses while using a parish-owned vehicle. The money was paid back in November 2002.

Nugent was allowed to remain free on a $5,000 appeal bond. He spent 28 years with the fire department and was chief from 1990 until he retired in January 2003 during the investigation.

11:00 A.M. - MONROE (AP): A volunteer emergency worker accused of groping three females at a Red Cross hurricane shelter will remain in jail pending an attempt to revoke his parole, authorities said.

Kevin White, 48, of Monroe, was arrested Monday after complaints that a 15-year-old girl was fondled, sexually explicit comments were made to a 13-year-old girl and a woman had her breast touched.

Although bond was set at $4,000, state parole officials put a hold on White. He was charged with second-degree murder in 1983, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted armed robbery and was sentenced to 53 years in prison. He was paroled in 1999 and ordered to remain under supervision until 2014.

"We fully expect him to serve the remainder of his sentence," said District Attorney Jerry Jones.

Jones also said his office plans to prosecute the groping charges.

10:26 A.M. - John Kennedy, Louisiana State Treasurer: The state will not declare bankruptcy. Those rumors are absolute nonsense. I’ve set up two lines of credit with two of the largest financial institutions in the world.

I don’t want to sugarcoat it. We will have some troubles for the time being, but we can certainly recover from this.

10:16 A.M. - (AP): Firefighters paused Sunday in their recovery work for Hurricane Katrina to observe the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack that killed their brethren in New York.

On the lawn of Our Lady of Holy Cross College in the city's Algiers section, firefighters from New Orleans, New York and other cities gathered around a makeshift memorial that said: "Never Forget. 343. FD 9-11 NY." On Sept. 11, 343 New York firefighters were killed in the attacks that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Dolly and David Gautreaux live down the street from the college. "We came to pay our respects because they have done so much for us," she said of the firefighters.

"A hurricane is an act of God," she said. "What happened in New York was an act of violence."

A bell from a neighboring church, its steeple wiped out by Katrina, was given to the New York firefighters.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened a ceremony at the site of the attack with a reference to the victims of Katrina. "And to Americans suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our deepest sympathies go out to you this day," he said.

10:12 A.M. - (AP): Shaquille O'Neal spent two days in Louisiana shortly after the storm struck, returning home deeply moved by what he saw. And donating money, he said, simply wouldn't be enough.

So for several days, he and his wife Shaunie have teamed with the El Dorado furniture stores in South Florida and urged people to give whatever was possible. The response, Shaunie O'Neal said, has been overwhelming. Click here.

9:55 A.M. - Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee: Boil order still in effect on the East Bank of Jefferson Parish.

9:54 A.M. - Lee: Let’s stop the name calling; let’s stop the blame game. In a year or so, we can look back and figure out who messed up what.

9:51 A.M. - Lee: In spite of problems that we had at the beginning of the situation, everybody is working well together. Mistakes were made on all sides, and we’ll have to sort that out later, but now is not the time.

9:48 A.M. Lee: We are progressing much more rapidly than we expected, since St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes could not utilize the utility workers that were sent to restore power.

9:40 A.M. - Col. John Fortunato, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office: Sheriff Harry Lee has asked all non-essential personnel to report to work on September 19.

9:30 A.M. - METAIRIE (AP): The New Orleans Zephyrs plan to be playing again next season in suburban New Orleans even though Zephyr Field is now being used as a staging area for emergency relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

Pete Fisch, director of operations for Beaver Sports, which manages the team, says damage to the stadium that hosts the Pacific Coast League baseball team was minimal. Fisch says the plan is to play baseball in April.

Zephyrs general manager Mike Scholine says baseball could provide a welcome relief from efforts to rebuild the area. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the Zephyrs canceled the last three games of their home schedule.

9:00 A.M. - WASHINGTON (AP): The commander of active duty troops involved in hurricane relief efforts said today his soldiers will not enforce New Orleans' order for residents to evacuate the flooded city.

Army Lieutenant General Russel L. Honore says military units are continuing to provide food and water and other aid despite the order, which he indicated is the responsibility of state and local authorities to enforce.

Honore told CNN's "Late Edition" that federal troops will not be involved in any way in the direct evacuation of people from their homes. He says that is a local and state law enforcement task not to include federal troops.

Thousands of residents are defying orders to leave the city, but security forces were not physically forcing anyone to go.

Mayor Ray Nagin had warned that residents could be forcibly removed, but authorities have been reluctant to take that step.

6:10 A.M. - (AP): Forensic workers and cadaver dogs searched the city in earnest for corpses as crews cleared away mounds of trash and debris left behind by residents fleeing Hurricane Katrina.

Officials working to identify remains processed bodies around the clock at a field morgue set up in St. Gabriel, a small community between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. A chain link fence covered in black plastic hid the operation from onlookers.

"The ability to capture useful information from that body diminishes from week to week, month to month," Terry Edwards, the morgue's director, said Saturday.

The confirmed death toll in Louisiana stood at 154 people, including some patients on life support who died when power went out, but the toll was expected to climb as crews collected bodies trapped in houses and floating in murky water.

Police and military officials have been marking the location of bodies with global positioning devices and paint on the outside of houses.

1:42 A.M. - OMAHA, NE (AP): Nebraska is welcoming Louisiana survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Airplanes and buses arrived in Omaha yesterday carrying 166 people from New Orleans.

The storm survivors were given immediate access to medical care and prescriptions, along with counseling and spiritual care. Relief agencies are providing food, clothing and other necessities.

The Humane Society has set up an air-conditioned tent for cats and dogs that accompanied their owners.

Evacuee Fred Savage says the people in his group not know their destination until the plane was ready to land.

Savage says one of his main concerns is the status of his mother's remains. Her body was in a mortuary awaiting burial when the storm hit. Savage wants to give her a proper burial.

12:46 A.M. - WHITE HOUSE (AP): President Bush heads to New Orleans this afternoon for his second visit since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Big Easy.

Bush will spend the night, then head to another devastated city: Gulfport, Mississippi.

The president starts his day marking the fourth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.

In his radio address yesterday, Bush said America will summon the same resolve to heal and rebuild as it recovers from the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina.

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