Gustav evacuees returning to food, power shortages

NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of thousands of Gustav evacuees began flooding back home Wednesday to face widespread power outages, food shortages and limited medical care.

Facing rising pressure, officials in most jurisdictions along the Gulf Coast began lifting evacuation orders even as they expressed serious reservations about conditions returning residents would face. In particular, officials warned the sick and elderly to stay away.

"We'd like to say 'welcome back,' but it's not the way we'd like to do it, with no electricity, no traffic lights," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, told a local television station.

Nearly all of the nearly 2 million people evacuated from southern Louisiana are expected to return in the next few days, potentially overwhelming the area's infrastructure.

Highways and other roads became jammed as evacuees headed home. In New Orleans, early returnees had a hard time finding supplies, particularly gasoline.

State officials said 1.2 million residential and business customers were without power in southern Louisiana. Outages in Jefferson County's sewage plants prompted officials there to asked residents of the New Orleans suburb not to use any water, because it could cause massive sewage backups in homes and businesses.

Of major concern is the number of hospitals operating on emergency generators.

Virtually all of Baton Rouge, the state capital, is without electricity. Fifty-seven percent of customers in New Orleans are without power. In some jurisdictions, utilities have said it could be weeks before power is restored.

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal expressed frustration at the pace of the power restoration, calling it "unacceptable."

"There is no excuse for delay," he said.

President Bush, who toured the area Wednesday, added to the sense of urgency, asking utilities in neighboring states to send extra manpower.

Philip Allison, spokesman for Entergy, the main electric utility in the region, said more than 10,000 workers from Entergy, its contractors and other out-of-state utilities were at work. He said any delay was caused by the "size and scope of the damage" from Gustav.

Hospitals without power and running on generators either received extra generators or were moving critical-care patients to other facilities, said Jolie Adams, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Chris Wormuth, a doctor at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales, La., was concerned about the 100-bed hospital and clinic, which is using emergency generators.

"We're open for the moment," Wormuth said. "But how long we can stay open we're not sure."

To forestall looting, 1,500 National Guard troops patrolled New Orleans on Wednesday, guarding gas stations and grocery stores and handing out ice.

At one of the few open gas stations in downtown New Orleans, owner Harry Leslie surveyed a line of cars and said, "I am shocked I'm this busy. ... I'll stay open as long as I have gas, but it is not looking good."

As residents returned to spoiled food and shuttered grocery stores, relief organizations began moving in.

Churches that have power started massive feeding efforts, and the Salvation Army was operating 65 feeding trucks along the Gulf Coast, a spokesman said, with the ability to feed 560,000 people a day.

New Orleans originally had planned to admit evacuees by phases, with major corporations and retailers permitted to return Wednesday and the general populace today.

But after scenes of frustrated evacuees stuck at police checkpoints, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin dropped the phased re-entry system.