KATRINA DEATH TOLL COULD RUN IN THE THOUSANDS
September 5, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - A week after Hurricane Katrina, engineers plugged the levee break that swamped much of the city and floodwaters began to recede, but along with the good news came the mayor's direst prediction yet: As many as 10,000 dead.
In New Orleans, Major Nagin upticked his estimate of the probable death toll in his city from merely thousands to telling NBC's "Today" show: "It wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000."
Nagin said the city had the authority to force residents to evacuate but didn't say if it was taking that step. He did, however, detail one heavy-handed tactic: Water will no longer be handed out to people who refuse to leave.
In another effort of "encouragement," a Louisiana State Police SWAT team, armed with rifles, confronted two brothers at their home in the Uptown section of New Orleans, leaving one sobbing.
"I thought they were going to shoot me," said 23-year-old Leonard Thomas, weeping on his front porch. "That dude came and stuck the gun dead at my head."
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