To the Point

Katrina's Evacuees

Twenty-five thousand body bags have arrived in Louisiana, where temporary morgues will handle the grim remains left behind by Katrina; thirty bodies have been found in a single nursing home. Amid ongoing search and rescue missions and continuing criticism of the federal response, Vice President Cheney is touring Mississippi and Louisiana with the mission of "cutting the red tape." Officials in Houston have been saying that evacuees are leaving the Astrodome and other shelters but, today, storm victims have formed mile-long lines to get Red Cross debit cards. In the aftermath of Katrina, where will evacuees go next? We hear from journalists, civic leaders, relief and volunteers workers about how evacuees in Texas and other states are trying to plan for their futures. Making News: Receding Waters Yield Corpses in New Orleans Federal response to Hurricane Katrina continues to be a subject of political differences. In Mississippi on his way to New Orleans, Vice President Cheney says disaster victims and local officials were grateful for the assistance they're getting. But Louisiana's Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu called Homeland Security Secretary Chief Michael Chertoff's assessment of relief efforts "tragically wrong." In New Orleans, Tim Dwyer is reporting for the Washington Post. Reporter's Notebook: UN Oil-for-Food Program Report Shows Faults by Annan Secretary General Kofi Annan says he is "deeply embarrassed" by the report of his son's involvement in the United Nation's Iraq Oil-for-Food Program, but the embarrassment won't stop there. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker's investigation has uncovered corruption at many levels in the UN. Accounts of oil smuggling could embarrass the US as well, as the Washington Post's Colum Lynch reports.