NEW ORLEANS — The sounds of power saws and wood chippers filled parts of New Orleans yesterday as the French Quarter and other neighborhoods that were spared the worst of Hurricane Katrina officially were reopened to residents.

Despite misgivings of state and federal authorities, Mayor Ray Nagin threw open the French Quarter and the Uptown section as part of an aggressive plan to put the city back on its feet. Algiers, a neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, reopened Monday.

The neighborhoods account for about one-third of New Orleans' 500,000 inhabitants. Most of the reopened areas have electricity, but only Algiers has drinkable water.

Serious hazards remain because of bacteria-laden floodwaters, a lack of clean water and a sewage system that has not been repaired fully. The stench of garbage is overpowering, and stretches of the city are pitch-black at night.

Some residents came back only to pack and leave.

"We're moving out of this stinking city," Billy Tassin said as he loaded his daughter's belongings into a truck, one day after finding his home in knee-deep mud. "They can finishing destroying it and burning it down without us."

The city is 95 percent dry, said Maj. Jeff Kwiecinski of the Army Corps of Engineers. He said the devastated 9th Ward probably would be pumped dry by tomorrow.

ENVIRONMENT

Seafood seems safe but hold the oysters

The first samples of fish taken from the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina showed no exposure to spilled oil, government scientists said yesterday.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted the tests southwest of New Orleans two weeks after Katrina. Additional testing for other contaminants continues.

The storm released about 8 million gallons of oil from onshore and offshore Louisiana sites, including storage tanks, pipelines and drilling platforms, said Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Russ Tibbets in Baton Rouge. About 1 million gallons could not be recovered, he said.

Tibbets said no spills have been reported as a result of Hurricane Rita's hit on Texas and southwest Louisiana.

Meanwhile, Louisiana environmental experts said shrimp, crab and fish from Lake Pontchartrain, the source of much of New Orleans' seafood, is safe if thoroughly cooked, but they advised people to lay off oysters.

Also

Cruise-ship deal: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush yesterday defended Carnival Cruise Lines' $192 million charter of three ships for hurricane relief, saying critics who have labeled it a "sweetheart deal" are wrong. Bush made his remarks to about 1,300 travel agents at a cruise-industry show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

New storm: The season's 19th tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean yesterday, and the National Hurricane Center said it could become a tropical storm today. The system would be Tropical Storm Stan if winds hit 39 mph.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Reuters and South Florida Sun-Sentinel