Alligators are stalking the flooded waters of New Orleans and rescuers fear that they will eat the bodies of Hurricane Katrina's victims.
Michael Rieger, a public information officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told Tuesday how crews in patrol boats searching for survivors had seen many alligators in the floodwaters.
Authorities have just started the operation to recover what could be thousands of bodies in the floodwaters, on the streets and trapped in homes. But Rieger told AFP: "There are a lot of people that are never going to be found. There are a lot of alligators in the water, and alligators love that type of stuff."
The spokesman said that National Guard, police and other emergency services had been leaving Global Positioning System (GPS) indicators on bodies they find in the streets so they can return to them after evacuating the living.
"Hopefully we find as many people as possible to give the families closure," Rieger said.
With about 10,000 people estimated to be left in New Orleans, which last week had a population of about 480,000, the evacuation effort has slowed significantly, the spokesman said.
About 45,000 people have been flown away from the region from the New Orleans airport, including between 5,000 and 7,000 on Monday.
Many people who had previously refused to leave their homes were now having second thoughts, said Rieger.
"It is starting to sink in that they are not going to survive another week and that (their) house is going to be completely in the water because the substructure has gone," he said.
Rieger added that if remaining residents cooperated, the city could be emptied in two days but that the emergency agency would keep up its house-to-house searches for between 10 and 14 more days.
