A cleaning worker throws mold-covered items into a wheel barrow

[Guest guest]

This is exactly what is going to happen with so many in the Gulf

States. Click on the link and look at the picture. We're going to

have alot of young children/people and adults that are going to be

so sick, because our government officials are playing this down and

they are not wearing any protection. This is where I believe Dr.Redd

from the CDC should be right along side them cleaning up. And when

somebody falls over on their face he might feel responsible. When

Dr.Redd gets sick, we should tell him to stop eating the drywall.

KC

US official backs reopening New Orleans

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=158123

Picture

A cleaning worker throws mold-covered items into a wheel barrow for

disposal in the Central Business District as business owners were

allowed into reopened sections of New Orleans. Coast Guard Vice

Admiral Thad backed the New Orleans mayor's repopulation plan,

saying " it is time to let the citizens in. "

NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - The federal official in charge of the Hurricane

Katrina recovery effort backed the New Orleans mayor's repopulation

plan, saying " it is time to let the citizens in. "

One month after Katrina forced most of the city's half million

people to flee, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad said residents

should be allowed to at least check on their properties, as long as

they are warned about the risks.

" Sooner or later the people have to come in and be able to have some

kind of an assessment of what's happened in their home, " said ,

who had previously urged caution in allowing residents back into the

ruined city.

" It's time to let the citizens in and see what the status of their

homes are, " he said.

Mayor Ray Nagin invited business owners to return to the least

flooded areas of New Orleans, which has been drained of the water

except for the impoverished Lower Ninth Ward in the east side.

He said residents of the French Quarter and other downtown

neighborhoods could come back Friday, while the remaining residents -

- except those from the Lower Ninth Ward -- could return October 5.

" Come in, inspect your property, if you want to stay, you're free to

stay, " Nagin said. " We're also allowing people to come in to look

and leave, and those areas will be the areas that are flooded. "

The Lower Ninth Ward remains " off limits, " said. The

neighborhood was flooded after Katrina broke a canal wall and had

been nearly drained when a second hurricane, Rita, sent waves over a

patched up levee.

Across the Mississippi River from the beleaguered ward, residents of

the least affected neighborhood of Algiers, which escaped the

floods, have been allowed to return since Monday.

But returnees are being handed fliers warning them they are

returning to the city " at your own risk. " Officials have urged the

elderly and children to stay clear.

Returning residents " need to be advised, first of all, that schools

will not be operating and that there are certain threats to public

health they have to keep in mind, " said.

" We feel it's a permissive environment for those folks to come in

and assess their houses and start putting the pieces of their life

back together, " he said.

He added that the city had agreed to an evacuation plan which made

it " OK to go forward " with the city's resettlement.

Nagin wanted to start repopulating his city last week, but was

forced to suspend his program as Hurricane Rita swirled across the

Gulf of Mexico.

While Rita mostly spared New Orleans, it devastated the Gulf of

Mexico coastline, adding to the ranks of the hundreds of thousands

left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. said he had flown over the

Louisiana coastline and saw the destruction in the southwest

parishes.

" I can tell you the devastation down there is pretty extreme, " he

said, adding that it reminded him of the destruction caused by

Katrina in Mississippi " where these coastal towns have basically,

pretty much been wiped off the map. "

Rita has left at least 10 dead. Katrina's death toll has risen to

1,132, including 896 people in Louisiana.

Only 340 of the 896 Louisiana bodies have been identified and 32

released to their families, state authorities said. New Orleans

business owners meanwhile are, like so many here, starting over from

scratch -- or close.

" It is like being a multimillionaire one night, and you go to sleep

and when you wake up you are down a couple of million dollars, " said

Benny Baghi, 39, who owns eight businesses including an antiques

shop.

While his store was the least damaged of his enterprises, Naghi

said " I used to do a lot of wholesale and the people (who bought),

they have lost everything they had. "

Naghi and his brother Efi, 31, are Iranian Jews who fled with their

parents after the 1979 Iranian revolution.

" Katrina is so similar, it wipes everything out, " he said. Down the

street, Hammy Halum inspected his two clothing stores, " Mirage "

and " Mirage Express. "

" Damage? A lot of looting, flooding and Mrs Katrina, " he said,

estimating that it would cost him " millions of dollars, " far beyond

his insurance coverage, to reopen before year-end.

A team of men he hired to help clean up was already at work, using a

tractor to push mounds of glass, mouldy clothes, belts, shoes and

mannequins into trucks waiting to haul the debris away.