Door-to-door search could take weeks

[ECH1969]

WASHINGTON - Rescuers have plucked tens of thousands of terrified residents from the rooftops of their homes in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, capturing what may be the bulk of the survivors in readily visible locations. Now the more difficult door-to-door scouring begins, and it could take weeks, if not months.

"I would like to believe that we are on the back side of this tremendous hump," Air Force Maj. Gen. Marvin S. "Scott" Mayes, leader of the air component for the military task force operating in the hurricane-ravaged region, said Sunday. "But now comes the grunt work of the search and rescue, now we're getting to the hard part. It will go on for some time."

Mayes, in a telephone interview, said the military is now going door-to-door, by foot or by boat, in many of the harder to reach sections of New Orleans and more remote areas of Mississippi and the region. And he said he hopes it won't take months.

Rescuers will "now have to find the people who have hunkered down," he said, in what he called a continuing rescue mission - not yet simply a recovery of bodies.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/breaking_news/12562804.htm

[bullimiami]

1. it will be door to door corpse collection by then.

they need to get enough people on the job to do it in a days once this initial rescue phase is done.

they should be gearing up for it now with overwhelming force ie the powell doctrine, not with a smaller smarter (sic) force a la rummy.

[whistle]

2. Over 750,000 homes, apartments and rooming houses flooded...

...so the door to door and room to room search could take 2,000 rescue people months to complete the job, But first they have to get the water out of the New Orleans soup bowl

[FloridaPat]

3. It will take months to get the water out. This will take months too

unless they bring in a lot more people.