The Bush administration moved to quell a political storm this evening by replacing the embattled head of emergency operations along the US Gulf Coast.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced he was appointing vice-admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the US Coast Guard, to take charge of recovery operations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and recalling Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown to Washington to coordinate the response to other possible disasters.
"We have to have seamless interaction with military forces," Mr Chertoff told a news conference in Baton Rouge. "Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge. I appreciate his work, as does everybody here."
Mr Brown had been the target of furious bipartisan criticism for the government's slow initial response to the hurricane and some of both political parties have called for his firing.
But President George W. Bush publicly praised Brown last week for doing a "heck of a job." The last straw appeared to come today with published reports that Brown had padded his resume, although Mr Chertoff refused to acknowledge a question on these reports.
In New Orleans, hopes rose that the number of dead might not be as catastrophic as predicted. Rescuers were only now beginning a methodical house-by-house search of the city for victims' bodies.
Thousands had been feared trapped in the poor, blue-collar neighborhoods, where people had no means to evacuate ahead of the August 29th storm.