New Orleans Steps Up Evacuations

Episodes of looting, which peaked Wednesday, have dramatically diminished, as police and National Guard troops patrol the streets of the French Quarter and the business district. People raiding stores beyond the downtown appear to be focused on supermarkets and drugstores, where they can commandeer essential supplies.

Helicopter-borne rescue teams from the Army, Navy and Coast Guard expanded their range on Sunday, moving beyond the business district to drop supplies onto streets and fields, and to ferry people out.

"We're going to have to go house to house in this city," Chertoff said during a televised news conference in Louisiana. "We're going to have to check every single place to find people who may be alive and in need of assistance. This is not going to happen overnight."

It was difficult to determine how many residents remained in New Orleans, which had a population of about a half-million before Hurricane Katrina struck, or how long the rescue operation is likely to take. The thousands of people plucked from rooftops over the past week have constituted what officials say were the bulk of survivors. But the door-to-door task ahead could prove especially difficult.

A potential problem for authorities is people refusing to leave. Some residents say they want to protect their homes. Others fear the hassles of evacuation, particularly if they have pets, which are not allowed on the evacuation buses.

Saint Jones, 30, was on a stepladder Sunday morning readying the sign for the Bourbon Street strip club he manages and expressing a desire to stay. "This city will be back," he said. "It won't be that long."

Jim Gibeault, parked outdoors in an overstuffed recliner, has painted in black letters on a white sheet for helicopter pilots to see: "WITH HELP WE CAN HELP OURSELVES." At the Olde Nawlins Cookery, Mike Lala said the worst is over; he has no intention of leaving. "As soon as we get water and electricity, we're going to open up," Lala said, figuring business will boom with the arrival of "tens of thousands of construction workers."

Shawn Lazana, 36, an artist, and Kay Kennedy, 41, a writer, had been trying to stay in her uptown home when a military unit arrived with automatic weapons to evacuate them. Their street is flooded, and Lazana said he had seen the bodies of an elderly woman and a young child in the water. But they were trying to ride out the hard times so that Kennedy could continue to care for her cats, Armand and Gabriel. "We were basically forced out at gunpoint," Lazana said.

Chertoff confirmed that rescuers had encountered a significant number of people who have said they do not want to evacuate. But he made clear that everyone would need to leave, saying conditions would not be healthy for some time, nor can residents be assured of finding food or drinkable water.

"We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city," he said at the news conference.

"They're gonna have to leave," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said. "The issue of life safety is really becoming a serious issue for me," citing the presence of toxins and bodies in the water. He said he expects that within three to four weeks, residents could come back to see their homes; but rebuilding and living in the city on a permanent basis likely cannot begin for another three to six months.

Eric Dryer, who works for the Harrods Creek, Ky., fire department, spent a tough day shepherding rescued New Orleans residents toward makeshift landing pads. "We're just trying to talk people into going," he said as he waited for three Navy helicopters to pick up 27 weary people.