NEW ORLEANS – Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force was wracked by desertions and disorganization in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
“I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it’s time to hand over the reins,” Compass said at a news conference. “I’ll be going on in another direction that God has for me.”
Meanwhile, nearly four days after Hurricane Rita hit, many of the storm’s sweltering victims along the Texas Gulf Coast were still waiting for electricity, gasoline, water and other relief Tuesday, prompting one top emergency official to complain that people are “living like cavemen.”
As New Orleans slipped into anarchy during the first few days after Katrina, the 1,700-member police department itself suffered a crisis. Many officers deserted their posts, and some were accused of joining in the looting that broke out. Two officers Compass described as friends committed suicide.
Mayor Ray Nagin named Assistant Superintendent Warren Riley as acting superintendent.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, the department said that about 250 police officers – about 15 percent of the force – could face discipline for leaving their posts without permission during the hurricane and its aftermath.
Each case will be investigated to determine whether the officer was truly a deserter or had legitimate reasons to be absent, Riley said.
“If they are deserters and deserted their post for no other reason than they were scared, then I don’t see any need for them to come back,” said Lt. David Benelli, president of the union for rank-and-file New Orleans officers.
Riley said some officers lost their homes and some are looking for their families, but others “simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe.”
Also on Tuesday, the state Health Department reported that Katrina’s death toll in Louisiana stood at 885, up from 841 on Friday.
A mandatory evacuation remained in effect for 10 southwestern Louisiana parishes.
In the hard-hit refinery towns of Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, crews struggled to cross debris-clogged streets to deliver generators and water to people stranded by Rita. They predicted it could be a month before power is restored, and said water and sewer systems could not function until more generators arrived.
John Owens, emergency management coordinator and deputy police chief in Port Arthur, a town of 57,000, said pleas for state and federal relief were met with requests for paperwork.
“We have been living like cavemen, sleeping in cars, doing bodily functions outside,” he said.
About 476,000 people remained without electricity in Texas, in addition to around 285,000 in Louisiana. About 15,000 out-of-state utility workers were being brought to the region to help restore power.
In Beaumont, officials briefed President Bush, Texas Gov. Rick Perry at his side, on relief efforts. Perry cautioned against criticism.
“There’s always going to be those discombobulations, but the fact is, everyone is doing everything possible to restore power back to this area,” Perry said.
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