Leak in Plaquemines Parish levee state's "No. 1 obstacle" to recovery.

USA Today
By Larry Copeland
Read full H1 News Report

ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Wednesday reluctantly agreed to open up his city to returning residents after many people driven out by Hurricane Gustav began streaming back to neighboring parishes.
Much of the region is still without electricity or working sewers, and most businesses remain closed.

Nagin said that he wanted more time to restore services before residents returned. But when neighboring parishes began re-opening Tuesday and Wednesday morning, he said he had no choice but to re-open his city.

"It's my humble opinion that the city is still in a very, very vulnerable state," he said.

People who had spent the last few days in shelters and hotels started trying to get back home on Tuesday after seeing that Gustav was not the powerful hurricane they had feared.

The National Guard was distributing water, ice, food and tarps to residents at multiple points around the state.

Tempers flared at checkpoints set up on highways into the region as residents learned they had to turn back.

"While we are allowing residents to return, this is not an environment that has full functional services," said St. Bernard Parish president Craig Taffaro.

Gov Bobby Jindal said Gustav, which struck southern Lousiana Monday morning, "continues to cause great, great damage in our state."

Two people died in a tornado, while two others died from carbon monoxide poisoning, he said.

"I strongly encourage all of us to take this storm and its aftermath seriously," the governor told reporters at a morning briefing.

The governor reported that two or three looters opened fire on National Guard members who were guarding supplies at Ville Platte, in south central Louisiana.

"They fired about five or six shots at the National Guardsmen," Jindal told reporters."The MPs, the military police, that were there took shelter behind their military vehicle. They returned fire with their M-16 rifles. The criminals fled."

The governor also said the National Guard was working to plug a leak in one of the levees in Plaquemines Parish, but he described the lack of power as his state's "No. 1 obstacle" to recovery.

The Entergy power company reported power outages to more than 740,000 households.

"There is no excuse for it to take weeks or months to get power back," Jindal said. "We absolutely need to quicken the pace that power is restored."

He also called on the oil and gas industry to buy 200 electric generators for gasoline stations that have fuel in storage tanks but can't pump it out. He said some sheriff's offices reported that residents trying to get back home were unable to get gasoline and had to abandon vehicles by the road side.

Oil prices ended down Tuesday after Gustav delivered less of a blow than Katrina, although virtually all Gulf of Mexico oil production remained at a halt on Wednesday.

The government said that production would resume as quickly as possible, with the caveat that hundreds of platforms, drilling rigs and miles of pipelines first have to be inspected.

President Bush was to fly to Louisiana Wednesday for a briefing at an emergency operations center in Baton Rouge.

"We are thankful that the damage in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast was less than many had feared," he said.

The president urged residents to heed the instructions of local officials and return home only when given the all-clear.

"We know that there is still risk even after the storm has passed," he said. "So I ask citizens across the region to listen closely to local officials and follow their instructions before returning to their homes."

New Orleans on Wednesday was beginning to show signs of activity. Utility workers and city crews were working to restore power and clean up downed trees, and some of the few residents who stayed behind were cleaning up.

Jonathan King was picking up tree limbs and sweeping up leaves in front of his house near downtown.

"Thank God for the levees," King, 56, said of the levee system that protected the city in the storm.

King said he didn't evacuate because he concerned about not being able to get back.

"Once they take you out of the city, it's so hard to get back," he said. "I got lights. My TV is on. I got water. I got me a bottle of wine sitting in the refrigerator. All I'm waiting on is for my wife to come back from Texas."

David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said "If you do come back, bring a car full of groceries."

"What you don't want is to come back to your home and then be a burden on your community," he said.

Louisiana evacuated 1.9 million people ahead of Gustav's arrival Monday morning. About 84,500 of those people were in shelters in eight states, according to the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Buses, trains and aircraft stood by to carry residents back to New Orleans, Paulison said. The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport will be open Wednesday, but commercial flights may not operate until later this week, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

Gustav's winds topped 110 mph and was far less catastrophic than Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,600 people. Nine deaths have been attributed to Gustav. Much of the damage involved downed limbs littering roads and flooding of homes.

Contributing: Rick Jervis in New Orleans; John Fritze and Emily Bazar in McLean, Va.; the Jackson Clarion-Ledger; the Associated Press