The Next Shock

from The Guardian story, Damage exposure will 'wake America up'
by David Fickling, Mark Oliver and agencies

The devastation that will be revealed by Hurricane Katrina's receding floodwaters will bring fresh shock to the US, the mayor of New Orleans warned today.

Ray Nagin estimated that it would take three weeks to drain the water, and said he did not know how many bodies the process would reveal. Officials fear that up to 10,000 people may have died.

"It's going to be awful and it's going to wake the nation up again," Mr Nagin said. He estimated that it would take several more weeks to clear the debris and a further two months to reconnect electricity in the urban area.

The draining of New Orleans today began with the plugging of one of the biggest gaps in its levee system, through which floodwaters surged to cover around 80% of the city.

Once the floodwaters have been drained, emergency teams expect to find toxic waste, rotting matter and dead bodies, and officials spent yesterday removing the last remaining survivors before the grimmer tasks of the operation began.

"There are no jobs. There are no homes to go to, no hotels to go to, there is absolutely nothing here," deputy police chief Warren Riley said. "We advise people that this city has been destroyed ... it has completely been destroyed."

Swollen bodies floated in the streets, and authorities are worried that hundreds more victims could be dead inside homes in New Orleans.

The Jefferson Parish president, Aaron Broussard, told CBS news that government would have to be held accountable for what had happened.

"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial before congress today," he said.

"Take whatever idiot they have at the top, give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."