1/3 of New Orleans residents could return
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-30 20:38

At Igor's, a pub and coin laundry in the Garden District, owner Halina Margan returned after Katrina and never left, despite Rita's threat last week. She was ready to open for business on Thursday.

"It's lonely here. We need people," she said.

State officials say at least 140,000 homes and businesses across southeastern Louisiana were so badly damaged that they must be torn down. The storms also left 22 million tons of debris, including 350,000 cars and trucks, said Mike McDaniel, chief of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

"Just as the nation knew that we had to create economic greatness in New York City after 9-11, the nation and the world needs south Louisiana," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said in seeking federal tax breaks, incentives and grants to rebound.

Even as residents were to begin pouring back into New Orleans, the police department said it was investigating a dozen officers accused of looting during the lawlessness that engulfed the city after Katrina.

"The investigation does in fact show police officers with some items," acting Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Thursday. He said four of the 12 officers have already been suspended for failing to stop looting.

"It was not clear that they in fact looted," Riley said of the four. "What is clear is that some action needed to be taken and it was not."

Riley drew a distinction between taking useful items such as food and jeans, which he contended didn't amount to looting in a crisis, and taking luxuries such as jewelry. He suggested that arresting looters was difficult amid the chaos following the storm.

"Minor offenders, it was determined, we could not in fact arrest them," he said.

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