a look from Europe
Sorry this is so long but it was sent to me via e-mai so i dont have the link to jsut send you to it.
Beleaguered Bush forced to admit US is unable to cope
TIM CORNWELL
Key points
• US government requests aid from Europe and NATO
• Countries worldwide offer assistance; Vatican to co-ordinate Catholic aid
• Bush faces mounting criticism over his lacklustre response to disaster
Key quote
"We have been abandoned by our own country" - Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans
Story in full THE United States has asked the European Union and NATO for emergency assistance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina as salvage efforts in New Orleans and other cities begin to move from rescuing the living to recovering the dead.
Britain will send 500,000 military ration packs, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday, as Germany and Italy announced military shipments of their own. The 4,000-calorie British armed forces meal packs are designed to last one person one day, with foods ranging from Lancashire hotpot and chicken curry to fruit dumplings with custard and Yorkie bars.
The US requests for blankets, first-aid kits, water trucks and food underlined the continuing struggle by the world's richest nation to cope with the biggest natural disaster in its history.
A week after Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast, driving winds of more than 100mph and a massive storm-surge into some of the poorest American states, the city of New Orleans was still showing signs of lawlessness. Police said they shot eight people carrying guns on a bridge, killing five or six of them.
The US Army Corps of Engineers said a group of its contractors, who were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges to fix a canal, had come under attack and the police had shot the assailants.
Deputy Police Chief WJ Riley said the shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
Scattered groups of people still remained in the heart of a city of 500,000 yesterday, but attention was turning to the growing demands of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and destitute.
The European response geared up rapidly yesterday. Both the European Commission and NATO, the 26-member military alliance, said they were co-ordinating European aid efforts after US requests to help the "humanitarian crisis" in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Defence Secretary, John Reid, promised as many daily flights as necessary to deliver the British rations. "No-one could help but be moved by the pictures of devastation to New Orleans and the surrounding areas and the plight of those affected," he said.
The German defence ministry was already sending its second Airbus loaded with 15 tons of rations, while Italy was sending a C-130 military cargo plane packed with blankets, bed supplies, dinghies, water purifiers and first-aid kits - enough for about 15,000 people. Belgium and Spain sent teams of experts to assess needs on the ground.
A string of other countries offered help. Pope Benedict asked the Vatican's central charity organisation, Cor Unum, to co-ordinate Roman Catholic aid. Kuwait offered $500 million in oil products, impoverished Afghanistan pledged $100,000 and Iran offered to send supplies through the Red Crescent organisation.
The administration of George Bush, meanwhile, was still struggling to respond to intense national and international criticism over its lacklustre response to the disaster.
Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger. "We have been abandoned by our own country," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press.
"It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans," Mr Broussard said. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now."
In Iraq, an al-Qaeda group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi seized on the US calamity, in a message it allegedly posted on an Islamic website. "God attacked America and the prayers of the oppressed were answered," it said.
In a White House appearance, Mr Bush paid a sombre tribute to the US Supreme Court chief justice, William Rehnquist, whose death was announced yesterday, but did not take questions on the hurricane relief operation.
It was left to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and others to defend Mr Bush against charges that the government's sluggish response showed racial insensitivity, given the numbers of black victims.
"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race," said the highest-ranking black member of his administration, visiting her native Alabama.
In Washington, the transportation secretary, Norman Mineta, said more than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called the largest ever airlift on US soil. He said flights would continue as long as needed.
About 20,000 people, including dozens of Britons, were finally evacuated from the New Orleans Superdome stadium and the surrounding area on Saturday night. The survivors reported stepping over bodies as they made their way to waiting buses. Others described rapes, killings and a suicide inside the arena.
Convoys of buses headed for the region at the weekend to help ferry survivors from the disaster zone, including 100 New York City buses, dispatched with an escort from the New York City Police Department.
The administration said more than 50,000 troops were now in the disaster zone. Three cruise ships were pressed into service by the US government to provide shelter for up to 7,000 hurricane victims. All pleasure cruises have been cancelled to make the vessels available for six months, a spokesman said.
There were also reports yesterday that the city of New Orleans could remain off-limits for as long as nine months. The Army Corps of Engineers said crews had closed a 300ft gap in one levee, where floodwaters poured into the city after the storm-surge from Katrina. But it could take from 30 days to nearly three months to end the flooding, it was estimated.
From neighbouring Texas came warnings that the state, which is already providing temporary shelter for 200,000 hurricane refugees, was running out of room. Emergency workers at the Astrodome Houston stadium were told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily.
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Beleaguered Bush forced to admit US is unable to cope
TIM CORNWELL
Key points
• US government requests aid from Europe and NATO
• Countries worldwide offer assistance; Vatican to co-ordinate Catholic aid
• Bush faces mounting criticism over his lacklustre response to disaster
Key quote
"We have been abandoned by our own country" - Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans
Story in full THE United States has asked the European Union and NATO for emergency assistance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina as salvage efforts in New Orleans and other cities begin to move from rescuing the living to recovering the dead.
Britain will send 500,000 military ration packs, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday, as Germany and Italy announced military shipments of their own. The 4,000-calorie British armed forces meal packs are designed to last one person one day, with foods ranging from Lancashire hotpot and chicken curry to fruit dumplings with custard and Yorkie bars.
The US requests for blankets, first-aid kits, water trucks and food underlined the continuing struggle by the world's richest nation to cope with the biggest natural disaster in its history.
A week after Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast, driving winds of more than 100mph and a massive storm-surge into some of the poorest American states, the city of New Orleans was still showing signs of lawlessness. Police said they shot eight people carrying guns on a bridge, killing five or six of them.
The US Army Corps of Engineers said a group of its contractors, who were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges to fix a canal, had come under attack and the police had shot the assailants.
Deputy Police Chief WJ Riley said the shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
Scattered groups of people still remained in the heart of a city of 500,000 yesterday, but attention was turning to the growing demands of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and destitute.
The European response geared up rapidly yesterday. Both the European Commission and NATO, the 26-member military alliance, said they were co-ordinating European aid efforts after US requests to help the "humanitarian crisis" in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Defence Secretary, John Reid, promised as many daily flights as necessary to deliver the British rations. "No-one could help but be moved by the pictures of devastation to New Orleans and the surrounding areas and the plight of those affected," he said.
The German defence ministry was already sending its second Airbus loaded with 15 tons of rations, while Italy was sending a C-130 military cargo plane packed with blankets, bed supplies, dinghies, water purifiers and first-aid kits - enough for about 15,000 people. Belgium and Spain sent teams of experts to assess needs on the ground.
A string of other countries offered help. Pope Benedict asked the Vatican's central charity organisation, Cor Unum, to co-ordinate Roman Catholic aid. Kuwait offered $500 million in oil products, impoverished Afghanistan pledged $100,000 and Iran offered to send supplies through the Red Crescent organisation.
The administration of George Bush, meanwhile, was still struggling to respond to intense national and international criticism over its lacklustre response to the disaster.
Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger. "We have been abandoned by our own country," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press.
"It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans," Mr Broussard said. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now."
In Iraq, an al-Qaeda group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi seized on the US calamity, in a message it allegedly posted on an Islamic website. "God attacked America and the prayers of the oppressed were answered," it said.
In a White House appearance, Mr Bush paid a sombre tribute to the US Supreme Court chief justice, William Rehnquist, whose death was announced yesterday, but did not take questions on the hurricane relief operation.
It was left to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and others to defend Mr Bush against charges that the government's sluggish response showed racial insensitivity, given the numbers of black victims.
"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race," said the highest-ranking black member of his administration, visiting her native Alabama.
In Washington, the transportation secretary, Norman Mineta, said more than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called the largest ever airlift on US soil. He said flights would continue as long as needed.
About 20,000 people, including dozens of Britons, were finally evacuated from the New Orleans Superdome stadium and the surrounding area on Saturday night. The survivors reported stepping over bodies as they made their way to waiting buses. Others described rapes, killings and a suicide inside the arena.
Convoys of buses headed for the region at the weekend to help ferry survivors from the disaster zone, including 100 New York City buses, dispatched with an escort from the New York City Police Department.
The administration said more than 50,000 troops were now in the disaster zone. Three cruise ships were pressed into service by the US government to provide shelter for up to 7,000 hurricane victims. All pleasure cruises have been cancelled to make the vessels available for six months, a spokesman said.
There were also reports yesterday that the city of New Orleans could remain off-limits for as long as nine months. The Army Corps of Engineers said crews had closed a 300ft gap in one levee, where floodwaters poured into the city after the storm-surge from Katrina. But it could take from 30 days to nearly three months to end the flooding, it was estimated.
From neighbouring Texas came warnings that the state, which is already providing temporary shelter for 200,000 hurricane refugees, was running out of room. Emergency workers at the Astrodome Houston stadium were told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily.
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