US: New Orleans residents started returning to their homes yesterday despite a warning from President George W Bush that a second storm could cause further flooding in the city.
Officials have ordered all residents to leave the lower Florida Keys in preparation for Tropical Storm Rita, which has been heading towards the islands.
Mr Bush warned yesterday that the storm could change course to hit the Gulf Coast that bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago.
"There is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in New Orleans . . . If it were to rain a lot, there is concern from the Army Corps of Engineers that the levees might break. And so, therefore, we're cautious about encouraging people to return at this moment of history," he said.
As many as 40,000 people were told yesterday to leave the Florida Keys from below Marathon to Key West, which are connected by a single highway. Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency in Florida, which gives the state authority to oversee evacuations and activate the National Guard, among other powers. Tropical Storm Rita is expected to pass between the islands and Cuba today but meteorologists fear the storm could track Katrina's path as it gathers strength.
The top federal official in New Orleans, Vice Adm Thad Allen, yesterday restated his opposition to a plan that would allow almost one third of New Orleans' half a million residents to return by the middle of next week. Vice Adm Allen was due last night to meet the city's mayor, Ray Nagin, who defended his plan yesterday and hinted that the vice admiral was overstepping the boundaries of his job.
"If he's suggesting I'm pushing a little hard, I am. The citizens of New Orleans deserve the opportunity to see what they have left and what they can salvage. I'm a little surprised the admiral came out publicly on this. Maybe since I've been away a day or two, maybe he's the new crowned federal mayor of New Orleans," he said.
Twenty per cent of New Orleans remains under water, recovery teams are still removing corpses from buildings and there is no potable water, limited electricity supply and patchy telecommunications.
Mr Bush said he understood the mayor's ambition to return life to the city as soon as possible and stressed that their disagreement was over how soon evacuees should go home. "The mayor is working hard. The mayor has got this dream about having a city up and running. And we share that dream. But we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans," he said.
Vice Adm Allen expressed concern that, if a second storm hits New Orleans and breaches levees that have been patched up during the past two weeks, poor communications could make it impossible to evacuate the city in time. Other officials have warned that the healthcare infrastructure in New Orleans has been destroyed.
The death toll from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana rose yesterday to 646 and the toll across the Gulf Coast was 883. More dead are likely to be recovered this week but officials hope that the final toll will be lower than 1,000.
The New York Times reported yesterday that more than one in four of the dead collected so far in New Orleans were patients who died in hospitals or nursing homes. At least 154 patients died, mostly because of the intense heat after air-conditioning failed.
Some private hospitals chartered helicopters to evacuate their patients, but public hospitals in poorer districts could not afford similar measures.