New Orleans fell deeper into chaos today as President Bush toured the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast and vowed the government would restore order and bring aid to the striken area.
Gangs roamed the streets of New Orleans and corpses rotted in the sun a full four days after Hurricane Katrina lashed the city and exposed federal aid efforts as a failure.
There were reports of a large oil spill spotted in the Mississippi River about 75 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Thousands of people remain homeless and without food and water in the southern city as criticism of the aid effort mounts with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 10,000.
Evacuees in and around the over-crowded Ernest Morial Convention Center described harrowing conditions.
"There's no food. There's no water. There's shooting. They're killing people," evacuee Tishia Walters told CNN from inside the center. "They're robbing men in the restrooms, they're raping women trying to go to the restroom. So people have resorted to defecating on the floors. You can't walk. There's babies without Pampers, mammas without milk. It's chaos total chaos."
A military convoy of emergency supplies finally rolled into the flooded city this morning
The trucks began arriving at the New Orleans Convention Centre, where 15,000 to 20,000 hungry and desperate refugees had taken shelter -- many of them seething with anger so intense that the place appeared ready to erupt in violence at any moment.
For a day or more, corpses lay abandoned outside the building, and many storm refugees complained bitterly that they had been forsaken by the government.
"It's worse than imaginable," the president said after walking through a battered neighborhood in Biloxi, Miss. He warned of gasoline supply problems this weekend because of damaged refineries and pipelines.
The president's comments came after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, telling a local radio station "they don't have a clue what's going on down here."
Mayor Ray Nagin said that more than 10,000 people were evacuated from the city yesterday but that more than 50,000 survivors were still on rooftops and in shelters, in urgent need of help.
The head of the New Orleans emergency operations described the relief effort as a national disgrace.
The number of casualties remains unknown. However, calling for the immediate deployment of regular combat troops in New Orleans, David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican senator said: "My guess is that it \[the death toll] will start at 10,000, but that is only a guess." He said his estimate was not based on any official death toll or body count.
In Biloxi, Miss., Bush encountered two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. "My son needs clothes," said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. "I don't have anything."
"I understand that," Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. "Hang in there," he said.
"People got to understand that out of this rubble is gonna come a new Biloxi, Mississippi," Bush said.
Asked later how the richest country on Earth could not meet the needs of its people, Bush said "I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results."
The White House announced Bush had approved federal disaster aid for Texas and Arkansas, which also suffered hurricane damage and Bush urged people to donate money to the Red Cross.
The president rejected suggestions that the United States could not afford both the war in Iraq and the hurricane cleanup. "We'll do both. We've got plenty of resources to do both," he said.
Agencies