Hurricane Katrina Watch: Evacuations Pick Up Steam

Thousands of New Orleans residents gather at a evacuation staging area along Interstate-10 in Metarie, La., on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. The residents were either evacuated by air or walked to the Interstate to escape the city still besieged by flooding and no electricity.

The ASSociated Press has Evacuation Finally Begins to Pick Up

Planes, trains and buses delivered refugees to safety on Saturday as the evacuation of this ruined city finally appeared to pick up steam.

Buses had evacuated most people from the frightening confines of the Superdome by early morning. At the equally squalid convention center, thousands of people began pushing and dragging their belongings up the street to more than a dozen air-conditioned buses, the mood more numb than jubilant.

But, medical care has been delayed.

At Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, thousands of people remained in a triage center, many of them dying for lack of medical care.

“The hallways are filled, the floors are filled. There are thousands of people there,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who was at the airport. “A lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day. It’s a distribution problem. The doctors are doing a great job, the nurses are doing a great job.”

Workers repair the broken 17th Street levee Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005 in New Orleans.

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