Posted on 09/04/2005 5:12:33 PM PDT by lightman
CBS) NEW ORLEANS Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.
They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.
None of the contractors was killed, Hall said.
The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
No other details, including whether any of the gunmen were killed, were immediately available.
The shootings come as the last weary refugees had been rescued from the Superdome and convention center and New Orleans turned its attention Sunday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in thousands of corpses.
The bodies of those killed in Hurricane Katrina are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating in the ruined city, crumpled in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
"I think it's evident it's in the thousands," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said Sunday on CNN, echoing predictions by city and state officials last week about the death toll.
Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said it was likely thousands were dead based on the city's population of 500,000, the percentage who left before the storm hit and the number evacuated from the shelters.
"So you probably have another 50-60,000 out there," Nagin said. "You do the math, man, what do you think? Five percent is unreasonable? Ten percent? Twenty percent? It's going to be a big number."
"We are still in the emergency. People must take seriously the fact that we have enormous ongoing challenges which we have to address right now or we're going to continue to have serious problems," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Told CBS's Face The Nation.
Chertoddd warned the the scene was going to be as ugly as anyone can imagine.
He added rescuers going house to house have encountered a significant number of people who have said they do not want to evacuate, hindering relief efforts.
"We have to get them to shelter. We have to get them educated. We have to get them semi-permanent housing. We've got to dewater and clean up New Orleans. We've got an enormous challenge, and we've got one in Mississippi and in other parts of Louisiana and Alabama."
CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts reports that at least 30 patients have died at the airport since Wednesday.
Sunday morning, a woman's body remained lying at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Magazine Street,, a business area in the lower Garden District with antique shops on the edge of blighted housing. The body had been there since at least Wednesday.
As days passed, people covered her with blankets or plastic.
By Sunday, a short wall of bricks had been built around her body, holding down a plastic tarpaulin. On it, someone had spray-painted a cross and the words, "Here lies Vera. God help us."
Leavitt said he had received a report of an outbreak of dysentery in Biloxi, Mississippi, with disease among the concerns of federal officials in the hurricane's aftermath. Dysentery is a painful intestinal disease that can cause dehydration and can sometimes be fatal.
The lack of clean drinking water in parts of the Gulf Coast region and standing flood waters with decomposing bodies and human waste in the streets of New Orleans could cause a rash of infectious diseases, including West Nile virus and the often fatal E. coli bacteria.
"All of the infectious diseases that occur when people are in large congregations of people can spread," Leavitt said.
Amid widespread criticism about a slow and ineffectual response to the crisis, the Bush administration dispatched several top officials to the region: Chertoff, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush visited the Red Cross' disaster operation center, where they thanked employees. The president also announced that the White House would hold a blood drive on Friday.
Chertoff defended the job of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown and declined to get into a discussion about whether the government moved quickly and forcefully enough to deal with the catastrophe, saying there would be plenty of time for a review.
Chertoff told Face The Nation: "I think that the lesson of this hurricane, which we will clearly look at as we go over an after-action evaluation, is going to be very valuable in moving forward. I mean, this was an ultra-catastrophe, but we have to be prepared even for ultra-catastrophes, even things that happen once in a lifetime and once in a generation. So, yes, we will be studying that."
Three babies died at the convention center from heat exhaustion, said Mark Kyle, a medical relief provider.
But some progress was evident. The last 300 refugees at the Superdome were evacuated Saturday evening, eliciting cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who had been standing watch over the facility for nearly a week as some 20,000 hurricane survivors waited for rescue.
On Sunday, utilities planned to send trucks into the city to assess storm damage for the first time since Katrina struck. Morgan Stewart, a spokesman for electricity provider Entergy Corp., said the National Guard would escort the company's vehicles.
The convention center was "almost empty" after 4,200 people were removed, according to Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Earlier estimates of the crowd climbed as high as 25,000.
Thousands of evacuees dragged their meager belongings to buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. Yolando Sanders, who had been stuck at the convention center for five days, was among those who filed past corpses to reach the buses.
"Anyplace is better than here," she said.
"People are dying over there."
Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood running to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet poking out from under a quilt.
By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.
The exact number of dead won't be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city. President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast on Saturday.
"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.
The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape, and, overwhelmingly, they were black.
"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner.
Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from the city, seeking safety in Texas, Tennessee and many other states.
The canal has a set of locks that allow vessels to enter/exit the lake/river depending where you want to go. There is another set across the river to do the same thing that allows one to get to Lafitte, Larose, and Grand Isle etc.
"You do the math, man, what do you think? Five percent is unreasonable? Ten percent? Twenty percent? It's going to be a big number."
lol, apparently he can't!
Part is there in NOLA, but their main MP unit is deployed to Iraq, but were already in the process of returning when the storm hit. AFAIK, they aren't back yet.
The gang bangers were reportedly armed with AK-47s. WalMart doesn't carry those, even allowing for journalist mis identification, Wally World doesn't carry SKSs or semiauto clones of AKs either. Some gun shops do of course, but there aren't all that many gun shops in the affected area. There are lots of pawn shops, but few if any of those would have the AK clones or SKSs either.
If they stole guns from WalMart, they'd be armed with 7mm, .270 or 30-06 deer rifles, .22s or bird hunting type shotguns. Perhaps in those regions where deer must be taken with shotguns, WM might carry shotgun designed as slug throwers. (shorter barrel, iron sights (shotguns typically only have a front bead sight and no rear sight), and maybe a rifled barrel. The closest WalMart ever came to carrying Ugly Black Guns, was when you could order a Ruger Mini-14/30 from a catalog, and that included the ones with black composite stocks, but I don't know if they still have that catlog or not. At one time you could order handguns via the catalog, although they didnot stock them otherwise.
The Mayor was smokin up that last rock before he went on TV the other night.
Today's killing of five vermin has probably prevented twice that many murders in future years, if not more.
Let's see some more "prevention."
I agree with you. The AK-47 reference made no sense. The most AK-47/SKS style weapons I've seen in one place is at a gun show. It just isn't likely that the average looter could or would break into a major city sporting goods store and walk out with an AK-47 or SKS and ammo. The closest thing to an assault rifle available at a retail point such as Walmart is a Ruger Mini-14 or Mini-30, and neither rifle looks anything like an AK-47 or SKS.
Only 5? Not the best record considering 2 police committed suicide 1 was shot in the head and many quit, so the current balance is more positive for thugs, police lost more members than the thugs were killed, pathetic.
I concur.
Looks like PMSNBC had some footage of it earlier.
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=f6eb67a0-dce3-4150-964a-65f467742ed8&f=copy
I heard that the rescuers couldn't tell if their helicopters were being shot at on purpose, or if maybe people were just shooting upward, possibly trying to scare off criminals.
Ancient practice would dictate heads on pikes.
Morning CP,
I have to agree, and those domestic terrorists need to pay the price for the harm they inflicted on innocent people.
I have to presume Blanco, Nagin and Landrieu would have called for a time out in that situation to avoid bloodshed.
Those terrorists learned that not everyone is afraid of them and their conduct will not be tolerated when real men join the fray.
(NO) does not need to be rebuilt, and all those people will be better off relocated within the state of La. All the able-bodied not disabled or retired should be trained, and made to get a friggin job/pay taxes like the rest of us.
Actually I am tired of hearing all those malcontents crying racism and blaming President Bush. My area in Bama was devastated by Ivan. Unlike some of the idiots in NO, we got our people together and pulled through.
We had no rapes, looting or murders and the local militia was on alert to prevent same for all people in our area. We did what normal Americans do in a catastrophic event, banded and moved forward in life.
When people elect mayor who is incompetent, they then get the leadership to which they voted in office.
The bottom line, Mayor Nagin was on the fly of ineptness, selfishness, immaturity, and as a result many in (NO) died.
The actions of the lawless will not be of any help to the evacuees. Who wants to help those, who blame others of a different race for their demise.
There is an old quote to which I have revised, Seek and you shall find, Knock at the door and it shall be opened, Ask and you shall receive,*** but*** "act like a lawless fool, blame others for your misfortunes, resort to terrorists actions and you will not get Jack."
My contributions are going to Al and Ms, where they will be appreciated and not to La where some think I owe them something in life.
Take care my friend, and I do hope all the good people will be aware of the scams that will promulgate as a result of hurricane Katrina. Last concept, to whom it applies Woe to those who open their homes to unknown people for you may not wake up the next day as the owner anymore.
"The Lord Helps Those Who Help Themselves" Get a "J-O-B"
Let Loose The Dogs Of War,
NSNR-CSAOTL-POA
Morning JC,
I guess that Brady Law is ineffective when dealing with criminals and gang members.(AK 47s)Walmart will get sued for having guns by the city of (NO) shakedown artists.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Here's Jesse&Al on call.
I always laugh when the liberals get on their roll about gun control. The only one's who suffer from this B.S is the law abiding citizens.
I believe Dead Kennedy, should have his body guards automatic weapons compenscated and Chucky Shoomer's protective detail from NTPD terminated.
Liberal communists are so good about passing laws that hurt the good American law abiding citizens in America.
In closing, "Fight Crime-Shoot First."
NSNR-CSAOTL
Hey AC,
I am not buying into this two P.O.s committed suicide. This is not warm and fuzzy and maybe some perps or their own(NPD) possibly killed them for not going along to get along.
I would love to see the ballistic tests and the witnesses who saw one (pushed) oh, I mean jumped to their death.
What we may have here is (criminal badge wearers) trying to silence some honest police officers to cover up some criminal wrong doings or do their job of (Protect and Serve). I also would like to know the race of the deceased officers, who allegedlly committed suicide( NOLACIDE).
What do you thing of my theory?
"Have Glock Will Travel"
NSNR-MPD
I can do math. And the flooding in New Orleans was very gradual. A sudden or flash flood is what kills people. I suspect the percentage will be quite low in terms of people who died. My guess is 0.1 percent or about 500.
So why? The important story is the killing of the terrorists. Why does the story wander off to how many dead there may be and other stuff that has nothing to do with the elimination of the urban terrorists?
Hang 'em High ~ Bump!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.