SAINTS RALLY TO BEAT PANTHERS SPORTS, A-16 ‘GATEMOUTH’ BROWN DIES A-11 .. 50 CENTS 169TH YEAR NO. 235 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 HURRICANE EDITION KATRINA: THE STORM WE’VE ALWAYS FEARED Some return to Plaquemines; death toll in Louisiana at 197 KATRINA EVENTS X Nearly half of Plaquemines Parish’s 27,000 residents allowed to return home. X The official death toll climbs to 197. X State Homeland Security director says FEMA too slow in finding temporary housing for 500,000 displaced storm victims. X President Bush makes his third visit to the storm- ravaged Gulf Coast, sleeping aboard the USS Iwo Jima docked in New Orleans. X New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin grilled for failing to order mandatory evacuation before the storm. X Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopens to cargo flights. X New York City firefight- ers and hun- dred of others from across the country take a break from hurri- cane relief to STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSON hold 9-11 com- memoration. New York firefighters Kevin Bourke and Steve Marley, surrounded by their brethren from New York and New Orleans, hug after a Mass at Our Lady of Holy Cross in Algiers. On the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the service honored both cities and the losses they have endured. See story, A-2 Superdome Nagin criticized over evacuation in the face of the storm. Plaquemines Parish President In Plaquemines Parish, the Benny Rousselle invited resi- laid waste By Ron Thibodeaux Staff writer reality of what Katrina dents to return where they wrought played out far from could. by those For those who gauge the the spotlight but with no less Many got right to work as- still-unfolding drama of Hurri- poignancy. Sunday was the sessing the damage, making re- cane Katrina’s aftermath in first day that almost half of the pairs and starting to upright sound bites and photo ops, parish’s 27,000 residents could their overturned lives, and the it sheltered Sunday did not disappoint as return to their homes after a sounds of traffic on Belle Chasse President Bush returned to the two-week evacuation. Highway and the whine of region and New Orleans May- While officials in some other saws and the pounding of ham- By Jeff Duncan or Ray Nagin caught flak be- hard-hit parishes want their mers on rooftops in neighbor- Staff writer fore a national television audi- people to stay away until public The concrete and steel titan on ence for the city’s performance services are fully restored, See KATRINA, page A-4 Poydras Street still dominates the New Orleans skyline. But the Super- dome, like everything else in the bru- talized city, looks much different now. Hurricane Katrina’s 100 mph-plus winds relentlessly strafed the world- Faith, not power, restored to Saints fans renowned stadium’s roof, peeled back their foreheads with cold long- helicopter chopped through the its white weather-protective shell like necks. skies over the French Quarter. a coconut husk. The force was so pow- By Steve Ritea Steve Bartley refused to get Whatever it was Sunday — erful it stripped off sheets of 2-inch Staff writer his hopes up, seeking to mini- luck, extra determination by foam and thick rubber and blew them The battered portable radio mize the pain if New Orleans’ the team, or a higher power of- all over the Central Business District. sat on the bar, its antenna rest- NFL team lost its season open- fering the Big Easy a ray of Three huge smoke dampers were ing on a Bud Light tap and er to the rival Carolina Pan- hope at its darkest hour — the blown from the roof. Seven other gap- Sunday’s Saints game crack- thers at a time when the suf- Saints had Bartley on his feet, ing holes were opened. ling over a steady undercur- fering city so badly needed a cheering and high-fiving when Once compared to a sleek futuristic STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL DeMOCKER rent of static as the crowd at win. the team pulled out a 47-yard spaceship, the Dome now looks like a Clad in anti-contamination suits, crews examine Johnny White’s Sports Bar “Typical Saints,” he gri- field goal in the final seconds to the sewage and garbage in a women’s restroom swatted away flies and beat maced after a goofed play, See SUPERDOME, page A-5 in the Superdome. back beads of sweat forming on nursing his beer as a military See FAITH, page A-3 • PLENTY OF SUNSHINE CONTINUOUS UPDATES COMPLETE HURRICANE KATRINA COVERAGE HIGH LOW Expanded edition of The Times-Picayune available at www.nola.com 92 73 ....