President George W. Bush ordered thousands more troops to New Orleans on Saturday to help pull desperate refugees out of the hurricane-ravaged city, force looting gangs off the streets and find the dead.
Under fire for his government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked one of the world's most famous cities and may have killed thousands of people, Bush said he will send in 7,000 additional active duty troops in the next three days.
"Many of our citizens are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans, and that is unacceptable," said Bush, who planned to return to the stricken region on Monday, a week after Katrina hit.
After days of broken promises, US troops have finally started moving emergency relief supplies into New Orleans and are now trying to halt widespread looting and horrific violence even as they feed evacuees and move them to shelters in Texas.
Survivors were still trying to leave the city on Saturday. Corpses lay in the streets, including a woman's bloated body lying face down in shallow floodwaters at the Superdome, a stadium where thousands endured brutal conditions after taking shelter there.
Thousands of people were told overnight to get out of the city convention centre. There was still no medical care for evacuees at the convention center, who desperately waited for a bus ride out of the city.
There was blistering criticism at home and abroad of the slow response to one of America's worst natural catastrophes.
Most of Katrina's victims are poor and black, unable to evacuate the area as the storm raced in, and the tragedy has highlighted the vast race divide in the United States.
Bush promised on Saturday to fix the failings of the emergency efforts.
As army troops and National Guard units establish control of New Orleans, they will seek to drive looting gangs off the streets and disarm them, but Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned the streets are not yet safe.
Across the United States, gas prices vaulted to over $3 a gallon after Katrina's 140 mph (225 kph) winds shut eight oil refineries and crippled several others.
THREE CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIPS TO AID The US government has chartered three luxury cruise liners - Ecstasy, Sensation and Holiday - for the next six months to provide temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Carnival Cruise Lines said on Saturday.
Two of the ships, the Ecstasy and Sensation, have a maximum capacity of 2,606 each and will be based in Galveston, Texas, while the third boat, the Holiday, has a maximum capacity of 1,800 and will likely be docked in Mobile, Alabama, the Miami-based company said.
10,000 MORE GUARDSMEN The US military will send an additional 10,000 National Guard troops to Louisiana and Mississippi to help in hurricane relief, bringing to 40,000 the number of such troops there, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
The influx of new National Guard troops, who are under the command of state governors, is in addition to 7,000 active-duty federal ground troops ordered to the area by President George W. Bush on Saturday, the Pentagon said.
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