Emergency workers collected the dead of New Orleans on Saturday and the official death toll rose slowly, boosting hopes Hurricane Katrina would claim far fewer lives than the thousands once feared.
As police and soldiers started to remove the bodies - many in homes marked with paint to identify their presence when floodwaters were high - President George W. Bush invoked the spirit that united the nation after the September 11 attacks.
"Today, America is confronting another disaster that has caused destruction and loss of life. This time the devastation resulted not from the malice of evil men, but from the fury of water and wind," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
The Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals raised the official hurricane death toll for the state to 154. In Mississippi, 211 people were confirmed dead. There was no updated official figure from Alabama, which also sustained considerable damage in the August 29 storm.
Some officials had warned of a death toll as high as 10,000 in the first chaotic days after the hurricane, which displaced around a million people.
SIGNS OF RECOVERY:
There were more signs of recovery around New Orleans. Plaquemines Parish, which covers territory in the Mississippi Delta south of the city, said it would lift the mandatory evacuation order for part of the parish on Sunday.
President Benny Rousselle, in a message on the Parish's official Internet site, said residents returning should bring their own food and medicine. "Electricity is sporadic. You may or may not have electricity," the notice said.
The Environmental Protection Agency posted the results of tests on New Orleans flood waters conducted earlier this week showing dangerous and unhealthy levels of E. coli.
Looting and violence, which erupted in the days after the storm, were also under control.
Some federal officials have put the cost of the storm at between $100 billion and $200 billion. Congress has now approved $62.3 billion for hurricane relief sought by Bush, who warned further requests will come.
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