New Orleans Steps Up Evacuations

"We tell them that every day, it's going to be harder and harder to get out of here because we're going to be farther away. Now it's a matter of sitting face to face with them and saying it's time to go," he went on. "If they don't go, people are going to be dying."

Initial reports about the bridge shooting were sketchy. John S. Rickey, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division, said 14 contractors with Boh Bros. Construction Co. were on the Danziger Bridge to retrieve heavy construction equipment. The contractors radioed to the Army Corp's emergency operations center for New Orleans that "they were taking fire," Rickey said. Local and state police responded to the scene and got the contractors out unharmed.

Marlon Defillo, spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department, said six people had been shot, with two dead.

At a shopping center on the north side of the bridge, people said they saw two men running down the bridge, exchanging fire with police. One of the men was caught; the other escaped into the deep floodwater.

"Shooting at the National Guard. Shooting at police. Shooting just to be shooting," Charles Hall said disgustedly. His friend Anthony Gilmore spat, "Innocents are suffering for their devilishness."

Across the street, watching the shootout were four men who had camped there for nearly a week. Twenty feet away lay the shrouded body of a man who had suffered a seizure on Wednesday. His dog still sat by his side, barking at anyone who came near. There was no one to remove the body, and nowhere to take it.

In some areas of New Orleans relatively unaffected by flooding, such as the Garden District and farther out St. Charles Avenue, dozens of people could be seen outside Sunday afternoon, wheeling shopping carts down the street. Many had heard that a supply truck was coming by. At the corner of St. Charles and Napoleon Avenue, soldiers handed out cartons of bottled water.

Several residents said they would leave if the evacuation process promises not to be too miserable. Others said they had been willing to leave, but could only get out now because they were afraid of what was going on outside.

James Bills, 42, a graphic designer and filmmaker, stayed at a downtown Best Western with his wife and two children through the hurricane. Afterward, he said armed gangs patrolled the streets. The hotel manager's husband, who had a shotgun, gave him a 9mm handgun.

"Here I am, a 42-year-old father of two, hiding behind a steel pole and pointing a pistol at people outside," he said. "Everyone said if you leave right now, they'll rob you and take your vehicle."

"It was like Baghdad, only with floods," said Gabriel Whitfield, the hotel manager's husband. "I couldn't believe I was standing on American soil."

Nodding toward Whitfield, Bills said, "He was the law on the block before the military got here."

Because they only had one day of supplies and children to feed, the two said they looted the local Wal-Mart with police permission. By Sunday afternoon, it appeared that all was clear. For the first time in a week, Bills allowed his 2-year-old daughter outside. He was sitting on a curb with her on his lap.

"It's a lot quieter now," he said. "We can get out of here now."

Staff writer Bradley Graham in Washington contributed to this report.