NEW ORLEANS - Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the National Guard arrived in force Friday with food, water and weapons ? rolling through floodwaters in a vast truck convoy with orders to retake the streets and bring relief to the suffering.
But Mayor Ray Nagin issued an urgent statement indicating that a single convoy would not save the city. He warned that thousands of residents could die if remaining water supplies are cut off or contaminated, and that 50,000 residents were still on rooftops or shelters awaiting rescue.
?We?re holding on by a thread,? he said. ?Time has run out.?
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The trucks began arriving at the New Orleans Convention Center, where 15,000 to 20,000 hungry and desperate refugees were stranded even though the site is accessible by vehicles.
For a day or more, corpses have lain abandoned outside the building, and many storm refugees have complained bitterly that they had been forsaken by the government.
The open-topped trucks carried huge boxes of relief supplies. Soldiers sat in the backs of some of the trucks, their rifles pointing skyward.
Some of the thousands awaiting their deliverance applauded, threw their hands heavenward and screamed, ?Thank you, Jesus!? as the camouflage-green trucks and hundreds of soldiers arrived. But there was also anger and profane catcalls.
?Hell no, I?m not glad to see them. They should have been here days ago. I ain?t glad to see ?em, I?ll be glad when 100 buses show up,? said Michael Levy, whose words were echoed by those around him yelling, ?Hell, yeah! Hell, yeah!?
?We?ve been sleeping on the ... ground like rats,? Levy said. ?I say burn this whole ... city down.?
Bush critical
President Bush, before leaving for a trip to the region, cited the problems at the convention center and said 600 military police would be sent to help distribute food and water in an orderly fashion.
The president, who was to visit the New Orleans airport later Friday, also said that overall the relief ?results are not acceptable? ? a blunt criticism of federal efforts so far.
City officials have seethed with anger about what they called a slow federal response.
?They don't have a clue what's going on down there,? Mayor Nagin told WWL-AM Thursday night. "Excuse my French, everybody in America, but I am pissed.?
As Bush arrived in Alabama to start his tour, the convoy of two dozen trucks and some 100 buses protected by National Guardsmen made its way into New Orleans on Interstate 90. NBC's Carl Quintanilla reported from aboard one bus that the buses were heading to the Superdome to pick up evacuees there.
Lt. Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard said 7,000 more National Guardsmen arriving in Louisiana on Friday would help restore order in New Orleans, where armed robberies, rapes and assaults have been reported.
?They have M-16s and they?re locked and loaded,? Gov. Kathleen Blanco said earlier. ?These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will.?
But Blum also underscored that the guardsmen's primary mission was to "save Louisiana citizens." The only thing we are attacking is the effects of this hurricane,? he said. Blum said that a huge airlift of supplies was landing Friday and that it signaled ?the cavalry is and will continue to arrive.?
At some of New Orleans? most troubled hospitals, where desperate doctors were being forced to make tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines, evacuations resumed Friday.
Rescuers finally made it into Charity Hospital, the largest public hospital and trauma center in the city, where gunshots prevented efforts on Thursday to evacuate more than 250 patients.
?We moved all of the babies out of Charity this morning,? said Keith Simon, spokesman for Acadian Ambulance Service Inc.
Early morning explosion
Adding to the scenes of chaos in New Orleans, an explosion rocked a warehouse near the Mississippi River east of the French Quarter at 4:35 a.m. Several smaller blasts followed and then acrid, black smoke that could be seen even in the dark. The vibrations were felt all the way downtown.
Several railroad cars reportedly blew up, and the warehouse is near a residential area. NBC reporters near the scene said they were told that whatever was burning was not toxic.
A fire also consumed a retail building in downtown. No fire crews were at the area, which appeared to have been abandoned.
While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, said ?we?re certainly talking weeks? to fix levee breaches that range from several hundred feet wide to 3,000 feet.
$10.5 billion aid bill passed
Bush has called the relief effort the biggest in U.S. history. The House on Friday approved a $10.5 billion aid bill, sending it to Bush?s desk for his signature. The Senate approved it late Thursday.
But New Orleans officials and stranded residents said the response should have been quicker.
?This is a national disgrace,? New Orleans? emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert said Thursday. ?We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can?t bail out the city of New Orleans.?
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