For posterity...
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- President Bush told reporters on Friday that millions of tons of food and water are on the way to the people stranded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina -- but he said the results of the relief effort "are not acceptable."
"A lot of people are working hard to help those who've been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts," Bush said before leaving the White House for a tour of the devastated areas in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. "The results are not acceptable."
He is scheduled to take part in a briefing in Mobile, Alabama, before taking an aerial tour of that area and nearby Biloxi, Mississippi.
Bush then plans move on to view Louisiana hurricane damage from the air, flying over the city of New Orleans. He is scheduled to make a statement at the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans before returning to Washington Friday night.
Frustration, anger and despair pervaded New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as authorities promised help would arrive soon to thousands of people stranded without food, water or relief from the heat.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at state and federal officials saying they were "thinking small" in the face of the massive crisis.
Nagin said he needs military troops to provide security and 500 buses to take people stranded by Hurricane Katrina out of the city. (See video on the military response -- 2:40)
So far, he said, the promises are unfulfilled.
"I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming. That is coming. My answer to that is B.S. Where is the beef?"
Nagin called for a moratorium on press conferences "until the resources are in this city."
"They're feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying," he said. (Full story)
Thousands of people have been stranded at the Ernest Morial Convention Center with little help and surrounded by corpses, trash and human waste. (See video of the desperate conditions -- 1:56)
"They've more or less corralled us in two places: The convention center and the Superdome, with no food, no water, you could say almost 90-degree heat inside," said evacuee Alan Gould.
"We've got small children and sick and elderly people dying every day, small children being raped and killed, people running around with guns -- I'm scared for my life, my wife and my 5-year-old daughter's life. We don't even want to live here anymore."
Gould said he has been in the convention center for three days. "They keep telling us 'Buses coming, buses coming,' and nobody's showed up yet ... We need help. We need to be out of here today."
A National Guard helicopter began to drop food and water to the refugees Thursday afternoon.
Federal Emergency Management Director Michael Brown told CNN that federal officials were unaware of the crowds at the convention center until Thursday, despite the fact that city officials had been telling people for days to gather there.
Overnight, police snipers were stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from gunmen roaming through the city.
Police officers told CNN that some of their fellow officers had stopped showing up for duty, cutting manpower by 20 percent or more in some precincts. Before night fell, police were stopping anyone they saw on the street and warning them they were not safe from armed bands of young men.
Adding to the chaos, at least one explosion sparked a chemical fire about 4:35 a.m. (5:35 a.m. EDT). It initially was thought to have originated in the city's southwest district near Chartres Street, but was later determined to be across the Mississippi River in a building.
Video footage of the fire showed towering flames and huge clouds of smoke. Authorities were trying to get a hazardous materials team to the area, a police officer told CNN.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told CNN Friday morning that she hoped the level of needed aid would begin arriving Friday.
"I think we're finally seeing the response," she said, adding that she hoped the remainder of New Orleans hospital patients would also be evacuated Friday.
"We have to get order so that we can proceed with the orderly progression, with getting people out of there, and that is our first order of the day," she said.
On Thursday she warned lawbreakers that extra troops had arrived in the city -- with more on the way.
"These are some of the 40,000 extra troops that I have demanded," Blanco said. "They have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded ... I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will."
She told CNN Friday that "anybody needs to get food and water wherever they can find it," she said. "I'm not talking about people who are trying to get survival items. I'm talking about people who are threatening other people."
Blanco said she had ordered buses from all over New Orleans to report to the Superdome and the convention center to help transport those who sought shelter there. Shelters all over Louisiana are filling up, she noted, along with shelters in Texas and Arkansas.
The Houston Astrodome in Texas, where thousands of refugees had been bused over the past couple of days, stopped accepting refugees late Thursday.
However, authorities later decided to process evacuees at the Astrodome and house them in the nearby Reliant Arena, said Patrick Trahan, city spokesman.
Other New Orleans refugees are being taken to Huntsville, Texas, along with San Antonio and Dallas, he said.
Recovery efforts are also continuing in Mississippi, where Katrina washed away entire neighborhoods and killed at least 185 people.
"We got hit by the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN Thursday.
'We are overwhelmed'
Brown, the FEMA director, said his agency was attempting to work "under conditions of urban warfare."
An effort to evacuate patients and staff from downtown's Charity Hospital had to be suspended after a sniper opened fire on rescuers. The hospital was caring for about 200 patients with no power or water, and the only food left was a couple of cans of vegetables and some graham crackers, according to a doctor at the scene. (Full story)
Meanwhile, stranded people remained on roofs, in the backs of trucks or gathered in large groups on higher ground, having little or no idea when help would arrive, or whether it would come at all. (See video on the continuing rescues -- 4:03)
Despite the deteriorating conditions in the city, hurricane survivors from neighboring Plaquemines Parish have started streaming into the city, according to Nagin.
"We are overwhelmed and out of resources, but we welcome them with open arms and will figure this out together," the mayor said in a written statement.
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