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A touching story of a Katrina family victim
Click here to listen to the sound: http://voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2005-09-09-voa51.cfm
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Fleeing Katrina to Atlanta: One Family''s Story
Selwyn and Chiquita Smith have lived in New Orleans their whole lives. They''re in their early 30''s and have three children - ages 14, 11, and 9. When they heard Hurricane Katrina was coming, the Smiths didn''t want to flee. But they took the mandatory evacuation order seriously.
The day before the storm struck New Orleans, they packed their children and a niece into their small car. "We couldn''t really get everybody in there, we had to leave somebody out," Chiquita says. "My mom opted to stay with my grandmother ''cuz she''s older, and it''s like the worst mistake of our life to leave ''em," she sobs.
Like thousands of other evacuees, they decided to come far enough east to escape the storm, and got off the highway in Atlanta, which forecasters said would be spared. The Smiths ended up at a Comfort Inn just west of downtown. After the 1,200-kilometer trek, Mrs. Smith spoke with her mother and grandmother by phone. Her mother described the pounding rain and massive winds, and said they were trapped in the attic.
"She was crying when I was talking to her on the phone," Chiquita says between sobs as she recalls the conversation. "I don''t know if they got rescued or nothing."
Chiquita''s niece, Tranetta Luque, 10, says she never wants to go home. "I want to find my family. But I don''t want to come back ''cuz it look bad. And I don''t want to stay in no city that have dirty water and dead bodies floatin''."
The Smith family has no home to go back to. They''ve watched helplessly, as TV news coverage showed their old neighborhood -- and the new one they were about to move into -- destroyed. "We just actually moved all our furniture and everything was sitting right in front of the door," Selwyn Smith says, adding that they saved for years to buy a modest single-story house in the northern part of the city. "It''s like a long-arm process that was coming to an end and now it''s about to start all over again."
Mr. Smith says they have virtually nothing. They brought just a few clothes and have only enough money to last another week at the most. "We went to Wal-Mart and just bought stuff that we knew would last, like bread and meat and the ice chest and just trying to stretch it. We''ve got to stretch it ''cuz everything counts right now."
There are hundreds of other evacuees at this Comfort Inn. They''re in the same predicament. Donations are coming in, and the hotel has reduced its rates. Still, it''s unclear how long this can last. At home, Selwyn Smith is a loan officer at a lending company and his wife is a hairdresser. Both of their businesses were wiped out.
"Within the next two weeks we have to do something or find work or something," Mr. Smith says. "It may have to be in this area until I can make some money and get out of the area, or closer to New Orleans or whatever."
But even with all the uncertainty, he says there''s clarity about what matters most. "Even if we never made it back to New Orleans, if our family members are safe that''s the only thing we worry about right now really. That''s the only thing we worry about."
The Smiths say all they can do now is take things one day at a time. They can''t plan their futures, but hold out hope that they''ll find their way. And everywhere they go, they carry a cell phone, desperately awaiting that call from home.

U.S. Removes China, Vietnam from List of Drug Countries
The White House says President Bush has removed China and Vietnam from the U.S. government''s list of major drug-transit or drug-producing countries.
In a statement, Thursday, the White House did not specifically say what led the president to make his decision. However, it noted that the decision-making process requires the president to consider a country''s performance in areas such as reducing narcotics production.
The president is required to report annually to Congress on countries that the U.S. government says are major drug-transiting or drug-producing nations. This year''s list names Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
The White House says Burma and Venezuela "failed demonstrably" to adhere to their obligations under international anti-narcotics agreements.
(VOA News )

Jobs & Jobseekers
The VietnamWorks Employment Indicator reflected strong growth in online recruiting demand in the second quarter (Q2) of 2005. Categories with the greatest demand were technology/telecommunications, sales, marketing, engineering, accounting, and administrative/clerical. The greatest supply of available candidates in Q2 was in the categories of technology/telecommunications, engineering, sales, advertising/promotion, export/import, and human resources. The administrative/clerical category showed a significant decrease in labour supply.
Demand index
The VietnamWorks Employment Indicator Demand Index is based on the number of job opportunities available in Vietnam. The Demand Index represents the total number of jobs publicly advertised within a three-month period. The data reveals good news for job seekers from Q2: recruitment activity has strong growth across a diverse set of industries. Overall labour demand for the quarter rose 42 per cent compared to the first quarter (Q1).
Thirty out of 39 categories showed an increase in labour demand in Q2, led by sales with 322 vacancies, followed by technology/telecommunications with 239 vacancies. Marketing (228) also recorded a steep rise, as did accounting (226), engineering (182), and administrative/clerical (168).
Fastest growth in demand
Accounting showed the sharpest increase in labour demand by adding 105 Index points. Sales, marketing, engineering, and technology/telecommunications were the other top growth categories by volume.
Real Estate went from 2 Index points in Q1 to 14 points, representing a change of 600 per cent. Demand in the expat category was up 250 per cent, followed by architecture, legal, restaurant/hospitality, and transportation/logistics.
Decline in labour demand
Insurance recorded a decline in labour demand and led the group with a 63 per cent decrease compared to Q1. Environment/waste services was down to 2 Index points. Travel/lodging also fell significantly, followed by healthcare.
Online job recruitment across the country
Hanoi showed a strong increase in labour demand with 677 Index points, more than double Q1â?Ts 326 points. Ho Chi Minh City again led by region, accounting for 57 per cent of all jobs nationwide, followed by Hanoi, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Hai Duong, Da Nang, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau.
Supply index
The Supply Index reflects the number of people actively seeking new jobs in Vietnam. It represents the monthly average of individuals posting their CV online and is measured in aggregate and by industry and functional category. Thirty-one of 39 categories rose in Q2. However, two major categories - administrative/clerical and accounting â?" recorded huge falls compared to Q1. The overall labour supply in Q2 showed only a slight increase compared to Q1.
Technology/telecommunications again led all categories in the number of active job seekers, with a monthly average of 340 in Q2, followed by sales (250), and engineering (183). Advertising/promotion/PR decreased in labour supply, but with 160 Index points held 4th place in the highest supply group. The export/import and human resources categories were ranked 5th and 6th, respectively.
Fastest growth in supply
The supply of technology/telecommunications candidates showed the largest increase in volume; a good response to its similarly increasing demand. The customer service and financial services categories both added 24 points to take 7th and 13th ranking, respectively. Entry level/internship and executive management occupied the other top spots in volume change.
The utilities category continues a three quarter growth trend, with a 54 per cent increase in labour supply, and leads with the fastest percentage growth. Real estate and environment/waste services increased by 53 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively. Healthcare jumped from the declining list in Q1 2005 to the top change in percentage growth in Q2.
Decline in labour supply
Eight of 39 categories showed varying degrees of decline in labour supply in Q2 2005. Administrative/clerical, which recorded the fourth largest growth in Q1, experienced the biggest decline in Q2 with an 80 per cent decrease. Consulting, expat, and accounting also showed sharp declines.
In review
Overall, labour demand in Q2 2005 continues to increase, with record growth of 42 per cent over Q1. As usual, the top labour demand categories were sales and technology/telecommunications. In Q2 the accounting category added the most jobs, while real estate showed the sharpest rise in demand measured by percentage change, with a 600 per cent increase. Labour supply slightly increased in Q2 2005. Technology/telecommunication accounted for the largest number of active job seekers and also led with the largest increase in labour supply by volume. In terms of percentage change, utilities with 54 per cent growth showed the sharpest rise. Although administrative/clerical was one of the top labour demand categories, its labour supply fell significantly in Q2.

With Rita strengthening, Galveston orders evacuation
Hurricane lashes Florida Keys, spawns tornadoes
GALVESTON, Texas (CNN) -- With Hurricane Rita intensifying as it treks westward through the Gulf of Mexico, the mayor of Galveston declared a state of emergency Tuesday night.
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas ordered mandatory evacuations of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
She also said mandatory evacuations of other parts of the city would begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Galveston -- a city in which about 8,000 people died in a 1900 hurricane -- is about 50 miles southeast of Houston on a barrier island 2 miles wide.
The latest five-day forecast from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, has the storm making landfall near Galveston late Friday or early Saturday.
But forecasters also said the path of the storm will depend on a high-pressure system over the southern United States. As that system moves east, it will become easier for the storm to turn north.
Rita continued to strengthen as its eye passed through the narrow Straits of Florida between Key West and Cuba and into the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The hurricane center warned that the Category 2 storm could reach Category 4 status by Wednesday afternoon. (Watch fierce wind, huge waves --2:27 )
A Category 4 storm has winds from 131 mph to 155 mph (210 kph to 248 kph) and storm surges from 13 feet to 18 feet (4.3 meters to 6 meters), based on the Saffir-Simpson scale that measures hurricane intensity.
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday recalled Texas National Guard forces in Louisiana assisting Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The recall affects 1,099 service members, Louisiana officials said.
In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin postponed a planned return of residents to the city and ordered those who had returned to leave because of the threat posed by Rita.
The commander of the Army Corps of Engineers told CNN that only 40 percent of the pumping stations in New Orleans were working.
"We think something on the line of 3 inches over six hours would probably put 2 to 4 feet of water in the lower-lying sections of the city," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock. "... The levees also are a concern. They would not stand any kind of significant storm surge."
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, the federal point man for recovery efforts, said 500 buses were available to take people out of the city, and it was possible commercial jets also would be used to evacuate people.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged residents of southwestern Louisiana to be ready to evacuate on short notice.
Because Rita could hit Texas, which already has taken in tens of thousands of Louisiana residents after Katrina, she urged them to go north instead of west. (Full story)
Tuesday night, Blanco sent a letter to President Bush asking him to declare a federal state of emergency.
As of 11 p.m. ET, the storm was centered 95 miles (150 kilometers) west-southwest of Key West and 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Havana, Cuba. (Watch CNN''s Jacqui Jeras describe Rita''s growing strength -- :59)
A reconnaissance aircraft measured top sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph).
Rita was moving west and had slowed to about 13 mph (20 kph). Its hurricane-force winds extended out 45 miles (75 kilometers) and tropical storm-force winds extended 140 miles (220 kilometers) from its center into south Florida.
''People are stubborn''
In the Florida Keys, thousands of residents hunkered down as Rita lashed the islands with blinding rain and winds Tuesday afternoon. (Watch high winds and rain pound Florida -- 2:27)
In Key West, many residents took to the streets, some of which were slightly flooded by late afternoon, to see the extent of the storm''s fury.
One woman -- dressed in a windbreaker and holding a small dog wearing a life vest -- said she would ride out the storm as she always has.
"I never do evacuate," she said. "I want to be able to get back in and get back to my job. And I work for the Department of Juvenile Justice so I feel like I need to be here."
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned residents to stay put. "Now is the time to hunker down. As we say, ''Turn around, don''t drown,'' " he said. (Watch Gov. Bush warn Florida residents -- 4:05)
Key West Mayor Jim Weekley said about half of the city''s residents left ahead of the storm, leaving about 13,000 people in the city.
He said people took the evacuation order more seriously in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, adding that only about 25 percent of the city''s residents left in previous hurricanes.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued Monday for the Keys, but many residents insisted on staying. The evacuation was the fifth ordered for the Keys in the past two years.
"In the Keys, a lot of people are stubborn," said Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
CNN''s Dan Lothian reported from Key Largo that he saw some people still putting up boards on their windows as late as Tuesday morning.
Gov. Bush said more than 1,600 residents of Monroe County, which includes all the Keys, were in shelters elsewhere in Florida. All three hospitals in the county were evacuated, as well as its nursing homes.
A hurricane warning stretched from just south of Florida City in southeast Florida down to East Cape Sable, around the tip of the peninsula and then north to Chokoloskee. All of the Florida Keys are included in the warning.
Hurricane warnings were still in effect for three Cuban provinces, including Havana. CNN''s Lucia Newman said more than 58,000 Cubans were evacuated from coastal areas.
(visit CNN for documentary video)

Nation urges high-risk areas to prepare for Storm Damrey
HA NOI â?" The Government issued a directive to the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control, ministries and other sectors yesterday, urging them to carry out immediate preventive tasks and prepare to tackle Storm Damrey from East Sea, expected to hit north and central regions.
The directive, signed by the Deputy Prime Minister ***************, asked ministries and local authorities to urgently complete repairing dykes and other facilities damaged by the previous Storm Vicente.
The directive, which asked ministries and sectors to learn from the experiences of the previous storm, called for close collaboration between the Centre and local authorities to mitigate possible damages, and human loss in particular.
The Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control has, meanwhile, issued a warning, following forecast of tropical Storm Damrey, asking vulnerable areas throughout the country to take preventive measures.
The committee asked the northern and central provinces to warn local fishermen and fishing vessels and ships to move out of areas to be hit by the storm.
Offices, factories, wharves and ongoing construction projects were asked to take measures for protection, and local farmers have been asked to harvest rice before time and drain water from low-lying paddy fields.
According to the committee, Storm Damrey was expected to move fast and affect large areas, and people from vulnerable areas had to be relocated before the storm hits the coast. Provincial authorities have been alerted and asked to stand on guard to monitor preventive work and to deal with damages from the storm over the weekend.
The committee has also issued an urgent warning to northern mountainous provinces, asking them to take preventive measures against landslides and flash floods.
Water level in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta River has surpassed the third level, the most dangerous one, the committee said, ordering provinces to ensure safety of human lives, particularly children and students, and relocate households in flood-prone areas to safer areas.
Provincial authorities were asked to organise creches for children in flood-prone areas, ensure safety of children travelling to and fro from schools, and provide swimming lessons for local students and children. â?" VNS
Lifeguards in central Phu Yen province rehearse their drills. â?"

Damrey leaves misery in its wake
HA NOI ?" Tropical Storm Damrey passed through the northern and central provinces yesterday, leaving one dead, nine injured and four others missing, according to the Central Steering Committee on Storms and Flood Control.
The committee reported that the one casualty and five injuries were in the central province of Thanh Hoa where the storm landed with wind gusts of 89-117km/h.
The strength of storm winds weakened as the weather system crossed the region and entered Laos. In certain areas of Nghe An, Quang Ninh and Ha Tinh provinces, people evacuated in advance of the storm, but they have been able to return home after one night.
According to initial statistics, about 300,000 people in northern and central coast provinces, including 80,000 people in Nam Dinh Province, were evacuated to safer places to avoid the storm which, as Typhoon Damrey, had already ravaged Chinâ?Ts Hainan Island.
More than 400m of dykes along the sea coast in Nam Dinh, Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa provinces have failed, and landslides occurred as waters overflowed dykes in Hai Phong and Ninh Binh provinces.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan yesterday morning visited Do Son Township in Hai Phong to direct local authorities in moving people to safer areas.
He also visited and checked work on Navigation Rescue Centre 1.
Deputy Prime Minister *************** on Monday worked with Nam Dinh Flood Control and Rescue Research Board on local disaster prevention efforts.
Ha Huy Thong, head of the Nghe An Storm and Flood Control Department, said the sun began to reappear yesterday afternoon. About 35,000 people living in coastal districts had returned to their homes after one night of sheltering in schools and offices in inland areas. Heavy rains continued to fall yesterday, however, in Thanh Hoa and Nam Dinh provinces.
Thong said 180km of dykes in his province kept their hold against the storm, but more than 13,000ha of subsistence crops and corn had been flooded, about 100 low-tension wire utility poles had fallen, and 45ha of shrimp ponds had been flooded.
"The most worrisome thing for our province is the need to ensure safety for 650 large and small reservoirs. The heavy rains have caused water levels in these lakes to rise," said Thong. "We have had to move 50 households living near Don Hung Lake where the dam is in danger of breaking."
In Quang Ninh Province, three were seriously injured as houses collapsed due to the storm. Electricity was cut in Mong Cai, Cam Pha, Uong Bi townships and Tien Yen District, as the local utilities gave priority to keeping coal production companies going.
A report from Thanh Hoa Province revealed that Storm Damrey had caused 950 houses and 50 classrooms and health centres to collapse, destroyed about 8,800 house roofs, and flooded nearly 32,800ha of rice, subsistence crops and sugarcane. 22,500 trees, 57 electrical poles and 206 telephone poles have fallen. Total damage is estimated to be about VND83 billion.
Four fishing vessels in Hai Ninh District went out to sea after one day sheltering in port, but all four vessels have been swept away. The Thanh Hoa storm and flood control force and local rescue teams are trying to seek the vessels. ?" VNS

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The Ministry of Defence yesterday afternoon mobilised military units *****pport storm victims and decided to allow officers and soldiers whose families were suffering from the storm to go on ten-day leave to help them.
The ministry also sent a message to praise military units and local soldiers for their efforts to alleviate damage from Storm Damrey.

Uprooted trees in Thanh Hoa Province. ?" VNA/VNS Photo Pham Vien Tiep

A restaurant is swept away in Nam Dinh Province. ?" VNA/VNS Photo Hoai Nam

Romantic ?~Cross of Flowers?T heads for cinemas at Christmas
Shooting on a new romantic drama entitled Thap Tu Hoa (Cross of Flowers) will begin today and be in cinemas in time for Christmas, according to producers.
The film is based on a short story of the same title by Tran Thuy Mai.
"I want to send the message that everyonê?Ts life will end someday, and if one makes the right choices in his/her life a beautiful flower will blossom," said the author. She explained that the cross was a symbol of death.
The film tells the story of Bich Lan and her lover. She once believed their ardent love was strong enough to bring them the best in life, but her hopes were dashed when her lover deserted her and their baby.
Lan and her daughter move away to a new place, where she meets her daughter?Ts piano teacher, a man who manages to touch her heart once again. Thang, the piano teacher, faces a dilemma. Although he admires Lan and adores her young daughter, he already has a family of his own.
The two fall in love but realise that their love would harm other people and lead to regret.
Model Thuy Huong will play Bich Lan while singer Nguyen Phi Hung has signed on in the role of Thang.
"We believe that the Da Lat, Phan Thiet and HCM City backdrop along with a team of top actors will satisfy filmgoers," said Truong Hoang Hai, A Chau Film Company president. The company has teamed up with the Khuc Nhac Xanh Company to produce the movie. ?" VNS

Indonesia must ban JI, says expert
(CNN) -- A regional terrorism expert has called on Indonesia to outlaw Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant Islamic organization widely believed to be behind the weekend terror attacks in Bali.
Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore''s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told CNN on Monday that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is the only group with "the intention and the capability" to mount suicide attacks against Western targets in Indonesia.
No group has claimed responsibility for the October 1 attacks on Bali tourism resorts that killed 19 people and wounded more than 130 others, but Gunaratna and other terrorism observers say the coordinated suicide blasts had all the hallmarks of a JI operation.
While JI is believed to be the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden''s al Qaeda terrorist network, it has not been declared an illegal organization in Indonesia.
Gunaratna, author of "Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror," said Indonesia''s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must designate JI as a terrorist organization and make it illegal.
He said that without proscribing JI, the Indonesian government would be unable to dismantle or destroy it.
Gunaratna said JI could still recruit and do propaganda work in Indonesia, where it was not against the law to be a member of the organization.
Asked about possible JI involvement in the latest Bali attacks, Indonesia''s Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told CNN on Monday that it was important to let police do their investigative work.
"We don''t wish to cloud the investigative process by making assumptions," he said.
JI was blamed for the October 2002 Bali attacks, which killed 202 people, most of them Indonesians and Australians.
Four key militants involved in that 2002 attack have been sentenced -- three to death -- while dozens of others have also been convicted.
JI is also thought to be behind two other deadly attacks: the suicide truck bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004 that left 10 people dead; and a suicide bomb attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003 in which 12 people died.
Clive Williams, Director of the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at the Australian National University, told The Associated Press on Sunday that despite the arrests of many JI-linked militants, the group still had the capability to recruit new members and apparently to stage attacks.
Australia and the United States consider jailed Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Ba''asyir to be the spiritual head of JI.
In March this year, Ba''asyir was sentenced to 30 months in jail for involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, but was cleared of all other terror-related charges, including those related to the Marriott Hotel bombing.
JI''s top operatives in the region are fugitive Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, both of whom are believed to be hiding in Indonesia.
Gunaratna said on Monday he believed that with the latest attacks, JI wanted to show it was still active, still had a presence in Indonesia and was still "carrying out its mandate."
Gunaratna estimated that less than 1 percent of Indonesia''s 230 million people supported JI and its related groups, but that was enough *****stain it.
He told CNN that JI was "regenerating." While it was now highly fractured, its cells were still capable of acting.
As part of a sound anti-terrorism plan, Gunaratna said Indonesia needed to outlaw JI, step up its anti-terror training, and improve its collection and propagation of high-grade intelligence.
Yudhoyono has condemned the Bali blasts as a terrorist attack.
"These were clearly acts of terrorism because the victims were indiscriminately chosen and the targets were public areas. As president and on behalf of the Republic of Indonesia, I strongly condemn these inhuman acts," he said in a weekend television address.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard told a press conference in Sydney on Sunday that Australia had long believed JI should be banned in Indonesia.
But he said that this was a matter that had to be decided by the Indonesian government.

Tourists walk past wreaths laid near the site where the explosions went off in Kuta.

Police chief Made Mangku Pastika shows reporters photographs of alleged suicide bombers on Monday.

Two women help a young victim of the bomb blast Saturday at a beachside cafộĂt Jimbaran Beach, Bali.

New Orleans to rebuild amid uncertainty
Questions about what can be saved and what must be razed
(CNN) -- How many people in New Orleans will have to make major repairs to or completely rebuild their homes?
President Bush told the nation there is a "powerful American determination to clear the ruins and build better than before."
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has what federal officials say is an ambitious plan to bring 180,000 people back to the city.
The mayor has said, "I just can''''t wait for the rhythm of New Orleans and the sounds of New Orleans to come back."
He once feared as many as 10,000 people might have died as a result of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed the Gulf Coast on August 29. On Tuesday, officials said the death toll was 972 and they called off door-to-door searches for bodies. (Full story)
At one point, 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded. According to the U.S. Census there were about 213,000 homes in New Orleans parish in 2002.
Mike McDaniel, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday that between 140,000 and 160,000 homes need to be leveled. And more than 350,000 vehicles are ruined, he added. However, local officials will decide which homes will be razed.
Nagin said the city had begun an initial assessment of homes, and residents should not believe rumors that entire neighborhoods will be bulldozed without consultation.
"There''''s this myth out there that we will start demolitions en masse before people get a chance to kind of assess and weigh in. We won''''t do that," he told reporters Friday.
Nagin said the Lower 9th Ward, a historic but largely poor neighborhood, should be treated respectfully. Some are worried developers may seize the opportunity to buy land on the cheap and build expensive high-rise apartments.
"I''''m hoping to come up with a system that if we do have to do any mass demolitions down in the Lower Ninth Ward," Nagin said, "that we figure out a proper compensation formula for those homeowners and they move either back in those areas or in an area that is comparable."
In St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, waters rushing in from Lake Borgne made neighborhoods like Lexington Place a cesspool of mud.
The newly built homes were ankle-deep in toxic filth at one point, a noxious air still makes breathing uncomfortable.
Trucks sit on top of cars. One home is in the middle of the street. Residents search for words to describe their horror.
"The guys were saying, don''''t cry, mom," one woman said. "Don''''t make it so upset and I got dehydrated. My pulse rate went down. I lost my vision, actually. I was sitting in the car sick. I couldn''''t even see my house. All I could see was the outline of the house."
Another woman said that from the outside, her home looked fine.
"When I opened the door -- when I saw the front of my house, I said, ''''Oh God, I still have a house and that''''s wonderful,''''" she said. "When I opened the door, it was like the house from hell."
Old homes have advantages
The French founded New Orleans in 1718 and many of the buildings are hundreds of years old. Some older buildings may actually fare better and likely can be saved, said Elizabeth English, an associate professor at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center.
"The buildings that have historic value, it''''s worth much more to try to preserve those," she said. "And most likely they''''ve been constructed from more durable materials and it may not be as difficult to save them."
English, who has a degree in architecture, said that old homes were built with a denser wood that is more resistant to mold and rot.
And those homes were built with painstaking craftsmanship better than today''''s workmanship, she suggested.
The amount of damage will depend upon how long the structure has been under water. Some buildings in New Orleans were flooded for more than two weeks.
Hurricane Rita brought even more water to the impoverished Lower 9th Ward further damaging some structures, state Sen. Walter Boasso of Arabi told the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
But just because a home has mold does not mean it has to be torn down.
"The mold can possibly be cleaned off," English said. "It depends how pervasive it is."
Still, there will be no way to save many homes and much of New Orleans will need to be rebuilt.
Nagin announced Friday a panel of 17 civic leaders whose job it is to develop a plan for the city''''s rebirth by the end of the year.
In the meantime, teams of firefighters have been sweeping the city, placing red signs on homes considered unsafe.
As of Sunday, 510 residences had been declared structurally unsound, however, most of the neighborhoods that were badly flooded have yet to be searched.
Some New Orleans districts -- like the French Quarter, Uptown, Algiers -- just need to be cleaned up.
Two weeks ago, after one of his early assessment flights of the city, Nagin said he was encouraged by what he saw.
"There was a kind of a protective hedge around the French Quarter, Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, Uptown, Treme, the unique assets of New Orleans," he said.
Nagin was relieved that a portion of the historic section of the city had made it through the storms.
He added, "So there''''s a fundamental, a foundation for us to build upon to bring New Orleans back even better."

Được dirosemimi sửa chữa / chuyển vào 08:56 ngày 06/10/2005

Leaders plead for help after Asia quake
Tremor leaves 22,000 dead, demolishes villages
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A day after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed about 22,000 people in northern Pakistan and India, government officials pleaded Sunday for international assistance to help dig survivors from the rubble, take them to hospitals and begin repairing the country''s shattered infrastructure.
Pakistan''s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, flew Sunday over flattened towns along the northwest frontier and over Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said 43,000 people were injured in the quake, which struck shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday (midnight Friday EDT) 100 kilometers (60 miles) north-northeast of the Pakistani capital. (See video on rising death toll -- 2:37)
Casualty figures "will certainly go up," he told CNN''s "Late E***ion."
Two major hospitals were badly damaged, and a massive relief effort was under way, with the government working to set up temporary medical centers and evacuating the injured in helicopters, Aziz said.
He appealed to the international community to send heavy-lift helicopters, as well as tents, blankets, medicine and "hundreds of millions of dollars" to help rebuild the infrastructure.
"Some of the towns have been flattened, so there''s nothing there," Aziz said.
In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush said he promised help during a telephone conversation with Musharraf.
"I expressed our nation''s deepest condolences, and I told him we want to help in any way we can," Bush told reporters Sunday. "To that end, we''ve already started to send cash money and other equipment and goods that are going to be needed."
The United States is moving eight helicopters "immediately," Defense Department Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a statement.
The five CH-47 Chinook helicopters and three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters are to be sent from Afghanistan and will arrive Monday, said the U.S. military''s Central Command in a written statement. (U.S. response)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said ties to Pakistan "are made even closer by the large population of British citizens who trace their origin to the Kashmir region. Such ties make the growing number of casualties even harder to bear."
The United Nations has been coordinating relief efforts from the international airport in Islamabad, said Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs.
A U.N. team arrived there at dawn Sunday, he said, and the operation was "growing by the hour."
But the need is staggering, Egeland added, saying the number of homeless rivals that of people left without shelter after last year''s tsunami in South Asia.
"There will be need for hundreds of thousands of tents and emergency shelter for all the people who have lost everything," he said.
Faiza Janmohammad, country director of aid group Mercy Corps, said Pakistan''s death toll was about 40,000, but the source of her information was not clear.
"This is the number we have been hearing in the international organizations'' coordination meetings as well as out in the field," she said.
Confusion over death tolls is common after such disasters, and confirmed tolls frequently are far lower than initial estimates.
The source of the confusion is clear: Much of the terrain is inaccessible as a result of landslides that blocked roads, and communications were cut in many areas.
An apartment building in Islamabad collapsed, but the city was spared the worst of the damage.
Rescue workers were slowly and methodically digging through that building''s debris to reach a survivor who spoke to them via ultra-sensitive microphones that were threaded through the rubble. (See video on survivors pulled from rubble -- 1:34)
Journalist Syed Talat Hussain in Islamabad told CNN that he felt the earthquake, ran from his apartment building with his two children and looked up to see a 19-story building "shaking like a reed in the wind." (More witness accounts)
Coffins are in great demand in the city, he said.
"In certain areas, the entire villages -- they have collapsed," Pakistan''s military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told CNN.
A second emergency team from Britain arrived Sunday in Islamabad, the Foreign Office said, bringing fire brigades and search dogs.
Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said at least 17,000 of the deaths occurred in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
Another military spokesman, Brig. Shah Jahan, said relief and rescue workers had yet to reach 30 to 40 percent of the affected areas.
Witnesses said the city of Balakot, in the North-West Frontier Province, is destroyed. "It is likely the ground zero," Sultan told CNN.
Buildings in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, also suffered heavy damage, and there was a high casualty toll. Among the structures damaged there was a Pakistani army hospital.
Mass burials could be seen taking place in the city.
Three days of mourning
The Pakistani government declared three days of mourning for victims, from Sunday until Tuesday.
The military was focused on evacuating injured people, establishing forward bases and opening communications, Sultan said. Bad weather initially hampered efforts, but the heavy rain stopped Sunday and con***ions improved.
Stunned Pakistanis, many covered with blood, camped out in the streets overnight, fearful of returning home because of aftershocks. One aftershock measured 6.2 in magnitude.
Some slept in their cars, while others gathered in outdoor areas such as soccer fields. As of early Sunday, more than 20 aftershocks of 4.5 magnitude or greater had rattled the region.
From Indian-controlled Kashmir, Time magazine''s South Asia Bureau Chief Alex Perry said he visited three villages that had been "destroyed."
Despite the widespread damage and pressing humanitarian needs, security concerns remained paramount, he said.
"There''s no doubt at all that it''s still a military zone," he said, adding that military checkpoints were holding up the passage of aid to the region.
"There is an immediate fear that this might be an opportunity for militants to start pouring over the border from Pakistan into Kashmir," he said.
But political tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region appeared to take a back seat as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Musharraf and offered help.
"We have offered all possible assistance for rescue and relief measures," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told CNN from New Delhi.
"We see this as a major humanitarian disaster for the people of this region."
Musharraf said he thanked the Indian leader for the offer. "Whatever we need, we will certainly ask," he said, though he noted that there is "a little bit of sensitivity there."
The two nations have fought three wars -- two of them over Kashmir -- since independence from British rule in 1947.
In ad***ion, international governments and relief agencies were mobilizing to help victims. (Details)
Although the majority of Indian-controlled Kashmir was spared the damage and devastation that occurred across the border, an estimated 80 percent of the border town of Udi, India, was destroyed.
The total death toll also extended to Afghanistan, where a girl in Jalalabad died when a wall of her home collapsed -- and more than 500 in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
A U.S. soldier told CNN the quake was felt in Kabul, but "effects were minimal."
Mukhtar Ahmed, Satinder Bindra, Matthew Chance, Tom Coghlan, Syed Mohsin Naqvi, John Raedler and Ram Ramgopal contributed to this report.
(See more video on CNN)

A pile of debris is all that remains of this bank Sunday in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir.

An earthquake victim''s body is carried past destroyed buildings Sunday in Muzaffarabad.