police thugs to use force to kick people out of their homes in new orleans!!! Original Article Police prepare to use force Officers scour New Orleans, taking holdouts' weapons Alex Berenson and John M. Broder New York Times Sept. 9, 2005 12:00 AM NEW ORLEANS - Local police officers began confiscating weapons from civilians Thursday in preparation for a forced evacuation of the last holdouts still living here, as President Bush steeled the nation for the grisly scenes of recovering the dead that will unfold in coming days. Police officers and military troops carrying assault rifles went door to door through New Orleans seeking those who have holed up to avoid forcible eviction or those too dazed to know that the waters that still cover much of the city contain a poisonous mix of germs and chemicals. "Individuals are at risk of dying," said P. Edwin Compass III, superintendent of the New Orleans police. "There's nothing more important than the preservation of human life." Although it appeared Wednesday night that forced evacuations were beginning, on Thursday the authorities were still looking for those willing to leave voluntarily. The police said that the search was about 80 percent done and that afterward they would begin enforcing Mayor C. Ray Nagin's order to forcibly remove residents. Storm aid coming in Bush, in Washington, urged the nearly 1 million people displaced by the storm to contact federal agencies to apply for aid. He praised the outpouring of private charity to the displaced but said the costs of restoring lives will affect all Americans, as will the horror of the storm's carnage. "The responsibility of caring for hundreds of thousands of citizens who no longer have homes is going to place many demands on our nation," Bush said in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "We have many difficult days ahead, especially as we recover those who did not survive the storm." While Bush spoke, Vice President Dick Cheney was touring Mississippi and Louisiana, in part as an answer to the critics who have charged that the administration responded too slowly and timidly to the epic disaster. At a stop in Gulfport, Miss., a heckler shouted an obscenity at the vice president. Cheney shrugged it off, saying it was the first such abuse he had heard. Also Thursday, Congress approved a $51.8 billion package of storm aid, bringing the total to more than $62 billion in a week. The government is now spending $2 billion a day to respond to the disaster. Recovery of corpses The confirmed death toll in Louisiana remained at 83 on Thursday. Efforts to recover corpses are beginning, although only a few bodies have been recovered so far. Official estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are still vague, but 10,000 remains a common figure. As the floodwaters drain from the streets, the city is giving up its dead. Bodies are found tied together and attached to trees, bridge abutments, fences, put there by passers-by to keep them from washing away. Going house to house, with Vicks VapoRub under their nostrils to block the stench, rescue workers mark houses that hold bodies and enter the spots on a global positioning system. Specialists will come later to collect the dead. Mississippi officials said they had confirmed 204 dead as of Thursday, although Gov. Haley Barbour said he expected the toll to go higher. He also said that electricity will be restored by Sunday to most homes and businesses in the state that can receive it. No one would venture a prediction about when the lights would come back on in New Orleans. The water continued to recede slowly in this flood-beaten city 10 days after Hurricane Katrina swept ashore and levees failed at several points, inundating the basin New Orleans sits in. The Army Corps of Engineers has restored to operation 37 of the city's 174 permanent pumps, allowing them to drain 11,000 cubic feet of water per second from the drenched basin. When all the pumps are working, they can remove 81,000 cfs, said Dan Hitchings of the corps. The corps said the city was still about 60 percent flooded, down from as much as 80 percent last week. Weapons limited Across New Orleans, soldiers, National Guard troops and local law enforcement officers from across the country continued door-to-door searches by patrol car, Humvee, helicopter and boat, urging remaining residents to leave. Maj. Gen. James Ron Mason of the Kansas National Guard, who commands about 25,000 Guard troops in and around New Orleans, said his forces had rescued 687 residents by helicopter, boat and high-wheeled truck in the past 24 hours. He said that National Guard troops, although carrying M-16 rifles, will not use force to evict recalcitrant residents. That, he said, is a job for the police, not the Guard. Compass, the police superintendent, said that after a week of near-anarchy in the city, no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms of any kind. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said. But that order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property. The guards, who are civilians working for private security firms like Blackwater, are openly carrying M-16s and other assault rifles. Compass said that he is aware of the private guards but that the police have no plans to make them give up their weapons. Nearly two weeks after the floods began, New Orleans has turned into an armed camp, patrolled by thousands of local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, as well as National Guard troops and active-duty soldiers. Although armed looters roamed unchecked last week, the city is now calm. The city's slow recovery is continuing on other fronts as well, local officials said at a late-morning news conference. Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press contributed to this article.