Monday, September 5 2005 10:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: As rescuers scoured New Orleans for last survivors of Hurricane Katrina called the largest 'emergency airlift' in US history, a top official estimated the death toll to be in thousands.

Senior cabinet members, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were also dispatched to the affected areas in response to criticism about the Government's ineffectual and delayed response to the crisis.

President George W Bush and first Lady Laura Bush visited the Red Cross disaster operation centre and he is expected to make his third inspection of afflicted areas today (Sept 5, 2005).

Bush had on Sept3, 2005 admitted that the response had been insufficient and spoke of an 'incalculable' human cost. He has also signed off an USD 10.5 billion emergency-spending package approved by Congress.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said the death toll from the Hurricane and its aftermath was in thousands. He said though he could not provide a precise number on the impact of the disaster, he told sources that "I think it's evident, it's in thousands."

"It's clear to me that this has been sickeningly difficult and profoundly tragic circumstances...we are still in the middle of an emergency...this is not the time when we can draw a sigh of relief."

Earlier, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had refused to estimate the death toll but said that an untold number of people could have perished.

"It's going to be about as ugly a scene as we've witnessed in this country with the possible exception of 9/11," Chertoff said.

"I think we need to prepare the country for what's coming, what's going to happen when we de-water and remove the water from New Orleans is we're going to uncover people who died, maybe hiding in houses, got caught in the flood, people whose remains are going to be found in the streets". New Orleans was emptied out after rescuers managed to evacuate thousands of survivors wanting to escape from the Superdome football stadium and convention centre in which they had taken shelter. Up to 40 aircraft operating around the clock finally cleared thousands from their squalid conditions

The streets were mostly calm and deserted and National Guard troops and US Marshals patrolled the flooded streets.

Towns along the Gulf Coast affected by the Hurricane were beginning the task of reconstruction and accounting for the dead, reports said.

The spectre was disease also haunted recovery efforts and doctors feared that squalid conditions in shelters could breed cholera or typhoid.

Preliminary estimates put the economic toll of Katrina at 100 billion dollars. The Washington Post said editorially that the U.S. economy could easily absorb it.

The whole country is feeling the economic consequences. Petrol, regular, was selling in the Washington area anywhere between USD 3.20 and USD 3.87 a gallon.