The scramble to evacuate thousands of people still trapped in New Orleans was held up yesterday by continuing lawlessness and violence as military helicopters came under fire and unrest broke out in the city's Superdome arena. Julian Borger reports from Baton Rouge
After a day of delays caused by floodwater and looting, the head of the US homeland security department, Michael Chertoff, said 200 busloads of refugees had left New Orleans, heading towards Texas, which has offered refuge for about 50,000 people.
President Bush, who has come under widespread criticism for his administration's slow response to the crisis, called for "zero tolerance" towards lawbreakers as National Guard troops began moving into New Orleans in armoured cars in an attempt to restore order.
Officials said that 50,000 part-time National Guard troops and military personnel would be committed to the relief effort.
But the Pentagon resisted any suggestion that National Guard troops from Louisiana should be pulled out of Iraq ahead of schedule.
Much of the unrest in the flooded city, however, appeared to be driven by desperation as the survivors of Hurricane Katrina still trapped in the city searched for food and water and were taking it from wherever they could.
President Bush made no distinction between those looters and criminals stealing electronic goods.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud," Mr Bush said in an interview on the ABC television network.
"If people need water and food, we're going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it's very important for the citizens in all affected areas to take personal responsibility and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility so the situation doesn't get out of hand, so people don't exploit the vulnerable."
The New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, sounded an increasingly beleaguered note with a "desperate SOS", saying the local authorities lacked food and transportation for hurricane refugees. "This is a desperate SOS. Right now we are out of resources at the Convention Centre and don't anticipate enough buses. Currently the Convention Centre is unsanitary and unsafe and we are running out of supplies for 15,000 to 25,000 people," he said in the statement read by CNN.
Anger was mounting at the relief provided by the national authority, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans's emergency operations, complained that Fema was not offering enough help.
"This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," he said. "Fema has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
Unrest broke out in the New Orleans Superdome, where over 20,000 people have been awaiting evacuation since the floodwater began rising on Tuesday, as rumours spread that buses were on the way to rescue them. Conditions have been deteriorating there after Hurricane Katrina blew off part of the roof and the toilets became blocked. Last night CNN reported that a New Orleans hospital had stopped evacuations after coming under sniper fire.
Meanwhile, the musician Fats Domino was reported missing yesterday. His agent told the Associated Press that he had not been able to contact Domino (77), since talking to him on Sunday evening by phone when he decided to remain in his New Orleans home with his wife and daughter.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is seeking to trace five Irish citizens who are feared by their relatives to have been caught up in the disaster.