Sunday, September 4, 2005
FEMA Chief: 'Urban Warfare' Slowed Rescue
Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Michael Brown said Friday that rescue efforts in New Orleans were hampered when relief workers came under attack by the city's criminal element, prompting conditions that resembled "urban warfare."
"We are working under conditions of urban warfare," Brown told CNN, explaining why his agency was unable to act more quickly to save those left behind by evacuation efforts.
New Orleans Police Chief Edwin Compass echoed Brown's complaint, telling NBC's "Dateline":
"We have never had an urban warfare battle like this on any front in the history of our nation . . . You're fighting in buildings that are pitch black with darkness. These individuals have root - the criminal element have looted all the gun shops and gun stores in this city, so they're armed, they're dangerous."
Though the city's crime rate is ten times the national average, U.S. news reports downplayed the connection between New Orleans' outsized criminal element and delays in rescue efforts.
Saturday's London Times, however, painted a bleak picture of the challenges faced by local police as they tried to restore order.
"One New Orleans police officer wept as he described seeing bodies riddled with bullets, and the top of one man's head shot off. He said some looters were armed with AK-47 rifles, and compared the situation with Somalia, with police outnumbered and outgunned by gangs in trucks. . . .
"An effort to remove patients and staff from Charity Hospital, in the city centre, was suspended after it came under sniper fire . . .
"It's a war-zone, and they're not treating it like one," he said, referring to the federal government . . . Gunmen continued to fire on troops and rescue helicopters, and police officials said that many officers had stopped reporting for duty, cutting manpower by 20 per cent."
Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Michael Brown said Friday that rescue efforts in New Orleans were hampered when relief workers came under attack by the city's criminal element, prompting conditions that resembled "urban warfare."
"We are working under conditions of urban warfare," Brown told CNN, explaining why his agency was unable to act more quickly to save those left behind by evacuation efforts.
New Orleans Police Chief Edwin Compass echoed Brown's complaint, telling NBC's "Dateline":
"We have never had an urban warfare battle like this on any front in the history of our nation . . . You're fighting in buildings that are pitch black with darkness. These individuals have root - the criminal element have looted all the gun shops and gun stores in this city, so they're armed, they're dangerous."
Though the city's crime rate is ten times the national average, U.S. news reports downplayed the connection between New Orleans' outsized criminal element and delays in rescue efforts.
Saturday's London Times, however, painted a bleak picture of the challenges faced by local police as they tried to restore order.
"One New Orleans police officer wept as he described seeing bodies riddled with bullets, and the top of one man's head shot off. He said some looters were armed with AK-47 rifles, and compared the situation with Somalia, with police outnumbered and outgunned by gangs in trucks. . . .
"An effort to remove patients and staff from Charity Hospital, in the city centre, was suspended after it came under sniper fire . . .
"It's a war-zone, and they're not treating it like one," he said, referring to the federal government . . . Gunmen continued to fire on troops and rescue helicopters, and police officials said that many officers had stopped reporting for duty, cutting manpower by 20 per cent."
