In St. Tammany Parish of New Orleans, nearly 50% of residents had power yesterday as work goes on to restore vital infrastructure to the city’s districts. Although the city is mostly empty due to the toxic nature of the floodwater — the first test results were published today by the Environmental Protection Agency — power needs to be restored to allow relief and reconstruction workers to tap into supplies.
The water level in the city is falling as temporary pumps are being used, and more of the city’s pumping stations are repaired by the Army Corps of Engineers. Their latest estimate is that water will be drained from New Orleans’ central area around the 2nd of October, with more districts becoming dry thereafter.
But the falling water is leaving a thick layer of mud on the streets and houses of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, and exposing more bodies. Thankfully, rescuers are so far not finding as many bodies inside houses as they at first feared, although the final toll is still unknown. Finally, and long overdue, Michael Brown has been removed from his post overseeing the FEMA relief effort and sent back to Washington as the relief process gets a much-needed shakeup.
tags: [new orleans] [hurricane katrina] [louisiana]
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