Mayor orders forced removal of all in city of New Orleans

New Orleans' mayor ordered law enforcement agencies Tuesday night to remove everyone from the city who is not involved in cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina, whether they want to go or not.

Mayor Ray Nagin instructed all public safety officers "to compel the evacuation of all persons ... regardless of whether such persons are on private property or do not desire to leave," according to a written statement from his office.

The order did not apply to people in Algiers on the West Bank side of Orleans Parish.

Many residents have refused to leave New Orleans despite a mandatory evacuation and warnings from government officials that staying in the flooded city represents a health risk.

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Police prepared to forcibly remove stubborn hurricane survivors from New Orleans Wednesday, September7 , as the political storm grows over disorganized relief efforts for a disaster with a death toll believed to be in the thousands.

The waters in New Orleans receded with the morale-boosting efforts of army engineers who managed to get a few of the city's pumps up and running after closing the levee breach that triggered the flooding, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Authorities say it could take close to three months to drain the city properly and Mayor Nagin warned the country to brace for some shocking images as the gruesome human cost of Katrina was fully revealed.

"It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," Nagin told the NBC "Today" show, a day after he estimated the number of dead could reach as high as10 ,000, according to AFP.

Use Force

While morgue teams moved through the city collecting decomposed bodies, police officers and firefighters were given the green light to use force in their efforts to bring all remaining survivors from their homes and out of the city.

In a new evacuation order, Nagin authorized any public safety officer "to compel the evacuation of all persons ... regardless of whether such persons are on private property or do not desire to leave."

The only exceptions were people engaged by local, state or federal agencies in the relief effort.

The order came as official patience ran out with some diehard Katrina survivors who rode out the storm at home and have adamantly refused to leave despite warnings of serious health risks.

The holdouts have posed a problem for the authorities who do not want to be seen manhandling people who have already endured terrible deprivation since Katrina hit just over a week ago.

"We want to encourage people to leave before the military takes over -- they won't be so nice in making people leave," police officer Clay Caywood told AFP.

"We'll do everything it takes to make this city safe. These people don't understand they're putting themselves in harm's way," police superintendent P. Edwin Compass was quoted as saying by Reuters.

But die-hard inhabitants of a city mainly known for jazz and Mardi Gras before becoming internationally famous as a disaster area of Third-World proportions say they fear evacuation to parts of the country where they have no family or means of support.

About 10 , 000people are believed to be holding out in the city.

The tough new policy was beginning to be felt on Tuesday.

Martha Smith-Aguillard,72 , complained to Reuters about how she had been brought against her will to an evacuation point alongside the city's wrecked convention center.

"They came got me out of my house and manhandled me into a truck and brought me here," she told Reuters.

Aguillard's foot had swollen up after she trod on a rusty nail and she said she needed a tetanus shot. Nonetheless she refused to board a government helicopter.

"They manhandled me and paid no mind to what I said. I ain't never been in no helicopter in my life, or no airplane, and I'm72 , I ain't starting now.

"I'm not going to get that tetanus shot, so I guess I'll just have to die," she said, adding, "We're all going to die and if I'm going to die, it's gonna be right here in New Orleans.

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To the estimated 10,000 residents still believed to be holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: Get out now — or risk being taken out by force.

As floodwaters began to slowly recede with the city's first pumps returning to operation, Mayor C. Ray Nagin authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders to leave.

The city faces the new threat of floodwaters that have become a toxic stew of chemical and biological waste, and growing concern over oil and gas leaks, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts. Authorities fear an explosion, with no running water to fight fires.

"Helicopters attack them like forest fires, filling up in the Mississippi, dropping load after load on the flames," reports CBS News Correspondent John Roberts.

Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said that forced removal of citizens had not yet begun. "That's an absolute last resort," he said.

Nagin's order targets those still in the city unless they have been designated as helping with the relief effort. Repeated calls to Nagin's spokeswoman, Tami Frazier, seeking comment were not returned.

The move — which supersedes an earlier, milder order to evacuate made before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore Aug. 29 — comes after rescuers scouring New Orleans found hundreds of people willing to defy repeated urgings to get out.

They included people like Dennis Rizzuto, 38, who said he had plenty of water, food to last a month and a generator powering his home. He and his family were offered a boat ride to safety, but he declined.

"They're going to have to drag me," Rizzuto said.

That's a sentiment Capt. Scott Powell, of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, has heard before as he tries to evacuate people by air boat.

"A lot of people don't want to leave. They've got dogs and they just want to stay with their homes. They say they're going to stay until the water goes down," he said.

Although many states and cities across the country have sent police and firefighters to New Orleans, evacuating the city's holdouts may be best left to the Crescent City's own emergency workers.

"When we were down in the French Quarter trying to get some of the people out there yesterday, the people that lived there, didn't give particularly a kind eye to someone from the outside saying you have to get out, reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan. "But when someone from the New Orleans police department showed up, they understood, they chatted a little bit. They both have something in common, unfortunately, in these circumstance."

The flood of political recriminations and maneuvering is under way, reports CBS News Correspondent Thalia Assuras. Democrats are calling for an independent commission.

In Washington, D.C., President Bush and Congress pledged Tuesday to open separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina and New Orleans' broken levees.

"FEMA worked well during the Clinton administration as an independent agency with someone in charge who had a lot of experience responding to emergencies," said New York Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton on CBS News' The Early Show (video) Wednesday. She is calling for FEMA's removal from the Department of Homeland Security.

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The mayor of New Orleans has ordered the forced evacuation of people refusing to leave the city, amid fears of serious threats to their health.

Mayor Ray Nagin said all citizens except those involved in the rescue effort should leave immediately.

"There are toxins in the water, gas leaks... We are fighting at least four fires... It is not safe," he said.

There are fears water contaminated by dead bodies, raw sewage and rusting vehicles could pose a health risk.

Fuel and chemicals leaking from flooded vehicles have created a thin oil slick floating on the water.

If flammable oils mingled with flaming gas leaks, "God bless us", the mayor warned.

The dangers prompted Mr Nagin to issue an emergency declaration late on Tuesday, authorising police and military to remove anyone who refused to leave their homes.

It is thought there may be thousands of people in such a position.

Experts feared New Orleans could be toxic and squalid for months or years, as floodwaters were pumped away to reveal hidden horrors.

"It is almost unimaginable the things we are going to have to plan for and deal with," said Mike McDaniel, a Louisiana environment official.

Mr McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said there was no option but to pump the contaminated water straight into Lake Pontchartrain.

"We have got to get the water out of the city or the nightmare gets worse," he said.

But the BBC's James Coomarasamy, in New Orleans, says there are contrasting fears.

A senior public health researcher at Louisiana State University has warned that dumping water full of chemicals and human waste could have damaging effects on the environment, our correspondent says.

It is thought that the water could kill fish and poison nearby wetlands.

The flooding of the city's sewage system also has serious implications for the quality of the city's water supply.

Mr McDaniel said reconnecting residents to fresh water mains was a mammoth task.

"It will take years to restore everyone. Water is going to have to be brought in," he said.

With three of the city's 148 permanent pumps up and running the city authorities announced that 60% of New Orleans was still flooded - down from 80%.

The economic impact of Hurricane Katrina was estimated at $100bn (£55bn) and more by experts on Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow said the effect on the wider economy could be to stifle US growth by half a percentage point.

He was optimistic, however, that the rebuilding effort would actually boost the economy next year by a similar amount.

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