NEW ORLEANS – Authorities frantically tried to restore order Wednesday
to the devastated city as brazen looters ransacked stores and houses for
food, clothing, appliances – and guns.
Thieves chased a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police
chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering
equipment from an Office Depot.
ERIC GAY/AP
Looters make off with merchandise from several downtown businesses Tuesday in New Orleans. With law enforcement officials and National Guardsmen focused on rescue efforts, looters are openly ransacking stores for food, clothing, appliances – and guns.
Officials tried to balance security needs with saving lives.
"We're multitasking right now," said New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon
Defillo. "Rescue, recovery, stabilizataion of looting, we're trying to
feed the hungry."
Gov. Kathleen Blanco appealed to the White House to send more people to
help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen
to stop looters.
"We need to free up the National Guard to do security in the city,"
Blanco said.
Meanwhile, city officials were taking advantage of the state of
emergency to empty an Office Depot, which already had been looted, of
supplies they needed for a temporary command center. During a state of
emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and
buildings for their use.
At 4 a.m., while officials were loading up routers and other technical
equipment, Police chief Eddie Compass "starts screaming – he had to
chase some looters out that were coming in to loot some more," Defillo
said.
City security chief Greg Meffert said he was awakened to help form a
human chain to quickly unload a state police truck filled with food.
"The truck was about to be attacked by looters. ...It had state troopers
in it," he said.
In the city's Carrollton section, which is on relatively high geround,
looters commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm
shutters and break the glass of a Rite-Aid pharmacy. The crowd stormed
the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from
their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen
noodles and other items.
Defillo said looters were also taking guns and ammunition.
"We're very concerned about that," Defillo said. "We will maintain
order. Let me say that. We will stabilize the situation."
Gunshots were heard throughout the night in Carrollton.
Defillo said an officer and a looter were wounded in a shootout. Defillo
had no word on their condition. Three or four others were also arrested,
he said.
One looter shot and wounded a fellow looter, who was taken to a hospital
and survived.
Staff members at Children's Hospital huddled with sick youngsters and
waited in vain for help to arrive as looters tried to break through the
locked door, Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher told the newspaper.
Neither the police nor the National Guard arrived.
Authorities planned to send more than 70 additional officers and an
armed personnel carrier into the city.
In the meantime, city authorities were putting a higher priority on
rescuing victims and repairing the levee breach that was spilling water
into the streets.
"One of our fears is if we don't stop the breach, that we will put good
people's lives in jeopardy and they would lose theirs, too," the
governor said. "We are concerned about essentials. We are asking for
more military presence in the city to control the situation better.
On New Orleans' Canal Street, dozens of looters ripped open the steel
gates on clothing and jewelry stores and grabbed merchandise. In Biloxi,
Miss., people picked through casino slot machines for coins and
ransacked other businesses. In some cases, the looting was in full view
of police and National Guardsmen.
The historic French Quarter appeared to have been spared the worst
flooding, but its stores were getting the worst of human nature.
"The looting is out of control. The French Quarter has been attacked,"
Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson said. "We're using exhausted, scarce police
to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while
we still have people on rooftops."
Sen. Mary Landrieu's helicopter was taking off Tuesday for a flyover of
the devastation and she watched as a group of people smashed a window at
a gas-station convenience store and jumped in.
At a drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with
grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
––
Associated Press writers Melinda Deslatte and Brett Martell
contributed to this report
©2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
