Stores Looted On Camera In New Orleans
POSTED: 12:55 pm CDT August 31,
2005
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Video arriving into NBC News on Wednesday shows scenes of lawlessness and looting on flood-ravaged New Orleans.
Slideshow: Video Shows Looting Of Wal-Mart
Video: Looters Caught On Camera
Residents are seen looting a Wal-Mart and a Walgreens in full view of camera crews and security guards.In one scene, several people dressed in security guard uniforms join the looters in stripping the Wal-Mart store.Then other people dressed as security guards arrived and detain some looters.Reportedly, troops armed with M-16 rifles arrived at the Wal-Mart to disburse the crowd.Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told NBC's Matt Lauer that while officials were deeply concerned about the looting, the government was focused on repairing huge holes in the city's levee system and saving people trapped by floods.Blanco said engineers were going to place a huge piece of reinforced concrete into the breech in the levee at Lake Ponchartrain.She said a gigantic "black hole" in the levee had swallowed all the sandbags placed there by engineers Tuesday.The looting video first aired on MSNBC on Tuesday night, on "Live And Direct With Rita Cosby."There were many reports of looting in the city as temperatures rose along with flood waters in the sub-seal level city.In downtown New Orleans, where looters are floating garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street.Some of the looting has been taking place in full view of police and National Guard troops. One man with an armload of clothes even asked a police officer if he could borrow his car.At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter Tuesday morning, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.When police finally showed up, a young boy stood at the door and shouted a warning, and the crowd scattered.A tourist from Philadelphia compared the scene to "downtown Baghdad."

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