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Urgent plea from St. Bernard ParishThursday, 10:
Polly Boudreaux, clerk of the St. Bernard Parish Council, issued an urgent plea Thrusday morning for help for the devastated parish.
Boudreaux, breaking into tears during a telephone interview with WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, said the parish is wiped out.
"We're just been absolutely devastated,'' she said.
Much of the parish remained underwater, she said, and efforts to get news out have been unsucessful. And many residents still needed to be rescued.
"St. Bernard has been rescuing St. Bernard for days,'' she said.
She said little outside assistance has been able to reach the parish.
"We are not seeing it. We need help,'' she said, her voice cracking.
Boudreaux said shelters set up at Chalmette High and St. Bernard High School for people not able to evacuate Katrina, were underwater and heavily damaged. She said those staying at Chalmette High, over 1,000 people, had been evacuated to an area at the St. Bernard Port.
Food and water is having to be rationed, she said.
She was not clear on where those at St. Bernard High had been moved.
She said parish government officials are holed up at Chalmette Refinery. The parish government building is underwater.
She said parish officials have made pleas for help from the outside.
"It never came,'' she said. "We just never saw it.''
"Everybody is in need. Everybody has just been wiped out.''
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