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Ugly homecoming in St. BernardNew Orleans residents to return according to ZIP code
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SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSNEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Residents returning to St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico, are finding near total destruction. Most of the parish -- including the interiors of homes and businesses -- is covered in a thick layer of dried, cracking mud. But in some towns like Meraux, Hurricane Katrina's wall of water carried the mud --along with entire houses and vehicles -- away. Houses had been pushed into streets, on top of cars or blocks away on top of someone else's home. And for those whose houses were still at their original addresses, there was still a rude awakening. "When I saw the front of the house, I said, 'Oh, god, I still have a house -- that's wonderful," said one Chalmette woman. "But when I opened the door, it was the house from hell." Nearly all of St. Bernard Parish was under water in Katrina's aftermath, and an estimated 50 percent to 80 percent of the structures there will have to be razed and rebuilt. But the true scale of the necessary reconstruction won't be known until engineers can determine what can -- and cannot -- be rebuilt. As they trickled in to assess the damage, many residents couldn't open the doors to their homes and were forced to climb through windows. Once inside, they described collapsed ceilings, insulation soaked from water that reached into the second floors, and toppled appliances and furniture. "You can imagine the extraordinary force that a billion gallons of water has coming over these levees," said Sheriff Jack Stephens. "It happened on a seven-mile stretch simultaneously." The levees in St. Bernard Parish, unlike in New Orleans, did not fail. But the tide topped them by five feet, said Stephens. And for the residents, there was no way to prepare them for the shock, he said. "I must have spoken to 150 families the last couple of days. All of them agree that there was really no way to prepare them for what they would find." Residents could come into the parish to salvage what they can between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT, said Larry Ingargiola, director of the parish's Office of Emergency Preparedness. "Some people say they want to stay and clean up," he said. "We can't figure where they're going to stay. If they're going to stay, they're going to have to accommodate themselves." ZIP codes, color codesUnder a re-entry plan announced by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, residents can begin returning as early as Friday. The first phase will begin Friday for residents of eight ZIP codes: 70114, 70131, 70116, 70115, 70118, 70130, 70112 and 70113. Business owners in those ZIP codes will be allowed in on Thursday. Homes will be marked with red and green stickers: Red means residents can enter, inspect damage, collect belongings but not stay; green means they can stay if they so choose. Nagin said that all other parts of the city would be open for residents next Thursday -- except for the Lower 9th Ward, which was destroyed during Katrina and flooded again by Hurricane Rita. "We're doing it as quickly as we can, and we're trying to make sure it's as safe as we can. "We are repopulating a city with limited resources, and we are trying to make sure that we maintain control over the looters," he said. "And if we spread our resources way too thin -- where we start to open up the city way too fast -- it's going to make it incredibly difficult to control that," he continued. Residents and business owners of Algiers, as well as business owners in the French Quarter, Central Business District and Uptown, have already been allowed back. Identifying the deadMeanwhile, 32 bodies identified in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have been released to their families, a state medical official said Wednesday. Medical incident commander Dr. Louis Cataldie said about 780 bodies are being processed by the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team. Of those, about half have been identified, he said. (Full story) The number of deaths blamed on the storm nationwide stands at 1,130, making it the third deadliest U.S. storm on record. Louisiana had the highest death toll with 896. Mississippi blamed 219 deaths on the hurricane; Florida, 11; and two each in Alabama and Georgia. Successful mandatory evacuations of residents along the Texas and southwestern Louisiana coast during Hurricane Rita Saturday are credited with the low number of deaths. Eleven deaths are blamed so far. Plea for helpFour days after Hurricane Rita hit, officials in the storm's devastation zone, which straddles the Texas-Louisiana state line, are pleading for essentials such as shelter, electricity, water and gas. Floodwaters up to 15 feet in some areas have receded across the largely agricultural region, revealing animal carcasses across the landscape. Temperatures are miserably sweltering. Cattle that survived the hurricane roam throughout the region, searching for food or water. Rita destroyed an estimated 90 percent of the homes in Louisiana's Cameron Parish. "We need help," said John LeBlanc, assistant emergency preparedness director for the parish. President Bush's Marine One helicopter flew overhead Tuesday as LeBlanc outlined his desperate situation. "We need the same sort of help a big city like New Orleans is getting." (Watch LeBlanc tour Cameron's splintered buildings and littered carcasses -- 2:13) "You walk down Main Street and it looks like downtown Beirut, a complete disaster," said LeBlanc, who's now sleeping in his truck because Rita destroyed his home. "All that's left is a driveway, just pieces." National Guard Maj. Pat Simon said the Holly Beach area was "totally wiped out," and "everything south of I-10 was pretty much just smacked." Guard troops were moving into hard-hit towns that are home to about 28,000 people to provide food, water and ice, he said. Rita has also caused record damage to offshore oil and natural gas rigs which could delay exploratory drilling, The Financial Times reported Wednesday. (Full story) 'They did not knock us out'Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked Congress on Wednesday for help in rebuilding her devastated state, saying Katrina and Rita "knocked us down but they did not knock us out." "We are looking forward, not backward," Blanco said. (Full story) Blanco's Washington appearance came a day after former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown testified before Congress that Louisiana's leaders dragged their heels as Katrina approached the Gulf Coast. (Full story) Wednesday marked the third day of the official reopening of New Orleans, which had been pushed back last week when Rita threatened. (Watch: Reliving Katrina's horrors through the camera's eye -- 4:15) A day earlier, city police superintendent Eddie Compass resigned after four turbulent weeks in Katrina's aftermath. (Full story) (Watch accusations of looting against New Orleans police -- 3:50) CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Henry Schuster contributed to this report. 
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