SOS from New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — The city that care forgot descended into anarchy yesterday, and the mayor dispatched “a desperate SOS.”

Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.

The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire.

In a statement to CNN, Mr. Nagin said, “This is a desperate SOS. Right now, we are out of resources at the convention center and don’t anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently, the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we’re running out of supplies.”

Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.

“These troops are … under my orders to restore order in the streets, ” she said. “They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the government is sending in 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to help stop looting and other lawlessness in New Orleans. Already, 2,800 National Guardsmen are in the city, he said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rescue operations were suspended in areas where gunfire had broken out, and the head of the city’s emergency operations called the federal response a “national disgrace.”

Terry Ebbert, head of the city’s emergency operations, said help is little and late. He warned that the slow evacuation had become an “incredibly explosive situation.”

“FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.”

Michael Brown, the undersecretary in charge of FEMA, seemed oblivious to the widespread despair.

“I actually think the security situation is pretty darn good,” he told reporters.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan, spokesman at the city emergency operations center, said she had reports of people shooting at helicopters trying to evacuate hospitals.

“There are people just taking potshots at police and at helicopters, telling them, ‘You better come get my family,’” Cmdr. Ben-Iesan said.

Anger mounted across the soggy ruined city, with thousands of storm victims hungry, desperate and despairing of the promised buses to take them out.

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