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NEW ORLEANS - People too poor or ill to flee Hurricane Gustav on their own began returning Friday by buses and trains to storm-battered neighborhoods in New Orleans.
"We were blessed to get there safe and blessed to get back," Jean Collins said after she and her children stepped off a bus at a downtown New Orleans train depot that authorities turned into an evacuation hub.
Officials on Friday reversed the process and began bringing back the estimated 20,000 people they shepherded out of town before Gustav slammed the US Gulf Coast on Monday.
Three buses loaded with returnees pulled up to the depot unexpectedly early, while the first trainload was more than an hour late.
The inauspicious start was described as "Ugly" by New Orleans head of homeland security Jerry Sneed as he commanded an army of volunteers, National Guard soldiers and city and federal workers at the depot.
Incident commander Thomas Ignezli climbed atop a folding ladder in the center of the depot to rally the force amassed to receive returnees and shuttle them to their homes or temporary shelters.
Bright blue, mauve and silver balloons, some shaped like stars, were placed at the doors leading in from train platforms.
"We can welcome our citizens back the way they deserve and convince them they should leave again if the need arises," Ignezli told his troops.
Sneed said the return of "city assisted" evacuees is hoped to take no more than three days.
Returnees interviewed by AFP said they didn't regret evacuating even though Gustav dwindled from a "monster" storm to a tamer Category Two tempest that struck only a glancing blow to New Orleans.
"What I saw was happy people, tired people, frustrated people," New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said after greeting a train carrying nearly 1,000 returnees to the city.
"Some had good experiences at shelters and some had serious issues. We will follow up and get it right next time," Nagin pledged.
Nearly two million people fled from Gustav in what is branded the largest evacuation in US history.
"It's not worth the risk not to," Dawn Lowery said as she and her daughters, ages 11 and 14, headed home to the Garden District.
"They had big fun," she added, firing sidelong glances at her daughters. "You guys went out of control and I let you."
Returnees aboard a bus that arrived unannounced on Thursday unanimously said they would leave again in the face of a new hurricane threat.
"They left for the right reasons," Sneed said. "It was important not to put their lives at risk."
US secretary of housing and urban development Steve Preston announced a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures in the disaster area and asked lenders to wave late payment fees "as people are getting back on their feet."
"It won't stop the interest clock from ticking, but there are many ways the lender can work with people," Preston said.
"Any lender who is facing a situation where a borrower is having a hard time paying, it is in their best interest to help them out."
Power has yet to be restored to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in portions of Louisiana slammed by Gustav, and utility company crews are feverishly working to repair electric lines.
Nagin expects his city to have nearly all electricity restored by Saturday night.
Officials are so optimistic about reviving the area, and so eager to show the region is on the mend, that the New Orleans Saints football team will play a regularly scheduled game in the city's Superdome on Sunday.
"People are going to go to the dome for sure just because they have air conditioning and they can use the bathroom," Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard said.
"People want to vent. People want escapism. The Saints have always been good mental medicine for this region. We need that medicine."
Situations were less optimistic in hard-hit areas such as St. James, Terrebonne and LaFourche parishes, where water and sewage systems were damaged.
Returning residents are warned to avoid flushing toilets and to boil water before using it for drinking or cooking.
While New Orleans residents are being urged to return, those who call Terrebonne home were told they can check on properties but not stay.
Aid stations are distributing ice, water, tarps and military field provisions called meals-ready-to-eat (MREs).
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that millions more MREs are being trucked in and that the state is lending power generators to businesses without electricity.
"We are still concerned that several communities will be without power for many days," Jindal said Friday.
As they clean up after Gustav, people warily track new hurricanes lining up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Only some 10,000 people are believed to have remained in New Orleans, a city of 300,000, when Gustav slammed the Gulf coast, amid fears of a repeat of the catastrophic flooding that came with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
- AFP /ls
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