New Orleans Mayor warns of 'awful' scenes to come
The floodwaters that caused so much misery and death in New Orleans were being pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain and authorities braced for what the receding deluge would reveal.
“It’s going to wake the nation up again,” Mayor Ray Nagin said today.
The US Army Corps of Engineers began pumping water out the flooded city after closing a major gap in a key levee that burst during Hurricane Katrina, flooding 80 per cent of the bowl-shaped city.
Nagin said it would take three weeks to clear the water and another few weeks to clear debris. It could also take up to eight weeks to get electricity back on.
“I’ve gone from anger to despair to seeing us turn the corner,” Nagin said today on NBC's Today programme.
Still, he warned that what awaited authorities below the muck would be gruesome.
“It’s going to be awful and it’s going to wake the nation up again.” Earlier, he warned 10,000 people may have died in the disaster.
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