09:31 PM CDT on Friday, September 2, 2005

By BRETT MARTEL / Associated Press

The cursing had stopped. The tears were gone. Mayor Ray Nagin returned from his meeting with President Bush a picture of calm, leaning back against a railing in a hotel lobby that for the first time in nearly five days was devoid of stranded, sweating, and generally miserable tourists.

"I feel much better. I feel like we've gotten everyone's attention and hopefully they'll continue to do what they're doing," Nagin said Friday night in the storm-damaged downtown Hyatt hotel, where his temporary lodgings and command post have been set up since Hurricane Katrina made life in the Big Easy insufferable.

"I'm cautiously optimistic. I want to see it happen (Saturday). I went to see it happen next week. Then, when I see consistency of delivery, I'll feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel."

His comments came a day after he was heard on a radio interview erupting in tears and telling the government to "get off your asses and let's do something." By nightfall Friday, his tone had changed.

"Today was a turning point, I think," he said. "My philosophy is never get too high, never get too low. ... I always try to keep my emotions in check and yesterday I kind of went off a little bit. I was worried about that, but it maybe worked out. I don't know. If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened."

Nagin said Bush gave him a "hearty" greeting and did not seem at all offended by Nagin's earlier outburst.

"I do think the pleas for help basically got the nation's attention, and the nation's attention got everybody to stop and re-evaluate what was going on, including the president. ... He basically said, 'Look, our response was not what it should have been and we're going to fix it right now.'"

Nagin said evacuation has been hampered by officials' difficulty grasping where state authority ends and federal authority begins and he said he very frankly urged Bush and Gov. Kathleen Blanco to get a clear chain of command straightened out immediately.

And there were already signs of progress in the form of not just tourists but shelter refugees streaming onto buses. Nagin said about 10,000 remained in the Superdome, down from what officials now believe was as high as 30,000.

He said the crowd at the downtown convention center should be leaving soon as well. And he was pleased to see work progressing on the hole in the 17th Street Canal that had been responsible for so much of the flooding.

Nagin asked Bush to focus first on helping New Orleans with law enforcement, finishing the evacuation and draining the flood waters out of the city. He said New Orleans also needs a fleet of crop dusters to spray the city for mosquitos that could spread disease after hatching from the stagnant, sewage and chemical laden flood water that has swamped most of the city since Monday.

Nagin also noted the city has two weeks of cash flow left.

"So this 10.8 billion dollar relief bill Congress is getting ready to pass, I hope they pass it quick because we're going to need some of it," he said.