Louisiana deaths at 423; facility owners charged
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 15:41

Tom Rodrigue, whose mother was among the dead, was still angry and near tears.

"She deserved the chance, you know, to be rescued instead of having to drown like a rat," he told CNN.

In addition to St. Rita's, the attorney general said he is investigating the discovery of more than 40 corpses at flooded-out Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. A hospital official said the 106-degree heat inside the hospital as the patients waited for days to be evacuated probably contributed to the deaths.

Even though the airport and waterfront were running at just a fraction of their capacity, the symbolic importance was not lost on a city that only days before had all but collapsed into looting and desperation.

"From a commercial and psychological standpoint, this is five stars," port president Gary LaGrange said between an outgoing barge shipment of auto parts to Alabama and the arrival of a ship carrying coffee and wood from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. "This shows the people of New Orleans their city is back in business."

Some experts had predicted it would take up to six months to get the port operating again after the hurricane damaged terminals and knocked out the electricity to operate cranes. A backlog of vessels had formed along the Mississippi River, waiting to load and unload cargo.

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which escaped widespread damage from Katrina but was reserved for humanitarian flights in the storm's aftermath, received its first commercial arrival, a flight with about two dozen emergency workers and returning residents.

"Welcome home," airport director Roy Williams said as he greeted the passengers. "We're glad to see you."

Airport officials hope to be up to 60 flights a day within the week and back to full operation of 350 flights a day in six months. Before Katrina hit, the airport was on pace for a record 10 million passengers this year.

During a tour of hurricane-stricken Mississippi, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta pronounced Katrina the worst disaster for transportation in U.S. history and estimated the damage to bridges and highways — including broken and disjointed stretches of vital Interstate 10 — at $3 billion.

The Army Corps of Engineers reported significant progress running the operation to pump out flooded areas of New Orleans and neighboring parishes.

Col. Duane Gapinski estimated that half of the flooded area or less was still under water, and at the rate of 8 billion to 9 billion gallons a day, the city was on target to be almost completely drained by Oct. 8.

The mayor said more than 40 pumping stations were operating in the city, including the city's biggest pump.

"That will change the world as we know it," he said.

Amid the encouraging signs from the streets, there were promises from the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to learn from their mistakes and intensify efforts to help the victims.

In Washington, Bush said "I take responsibility" for the government's failures in dealing with the hurricane, and he said the disaster raised questions about the nation's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terrorist attacks.

"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," the president said.

The new acting director of FEMA, R. David Paulison, also promised to get thousands of evacuees out of shelters and into temporary housing.

"We're going to move on and get them the help they need," Paulison said in his first public statements since taking over the job.