NEW ORLEANS - Storm victims were raped and beaten, fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at as parts of hurricane-flooded New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday.
“This is a desperate SOS,” Mayor Ray Nagin said hours before President Bush asked Congress to consider an emergency request for $10.5 billion in aid.
Anger mounted across the ruined city, as thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims grew increasingly hungry, thirsty and tired of waiting for buses to take them out.