Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 57,000 troops poured into the New Orleans region to restore order and rescue victims stranded a week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

About 150 helicopters and 300 boats picked up more than 10,000 people, Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said in an interview. The evacuation has moved about 75,000 people to shelters in Louisiana and 35,000 to places in Texas, he said.

Storm damage and flooding from the worst natural disaster in U.S. history was compounded by acts of murder, looting, arson and rape. Government officials are trying to find and identify the dead, and prevent disease caused by fetid, standing water, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said.

The death toll ``is in the thousands,'' Leavitt told Cable News Network yesterday. Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 29, shuttering oil fields and refineries and leaving a $100 billion trail of destruction, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc., an insurance-industry consultant.

Rescue efforts were still being hampered by roving bands of criminals. New Orleans police shot eight people who fired at some Army Corps of Engineers contractors on a bridge, killing six suspects, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said.

Bush Appeal

At American Red Cross headquarters in Washington yesterday, President George W. Bush appealed for volunteers.

``I know much of the country is focused on New Orleans, Louisiana, but parishes outside of New Orleans have been ruined,'' Bush said. ``Up and down the coast of Mississippi, communities have been destroyed. ``So we need more manpower.''

Many Americans said the government's response to the crisis was inadequate, a poll showed.

Forty-four percent of adults surveyed by ABC News and the Washington Post said Bush deserves ``a great'' or ``a good'' amount of blame for the government's response, and 33 percent said the president deserves ``some'' blame. Only 22 percent said Bush deserves no blame for the federal response. The poll of 501 adults had a margin of error of four points.

Bush has defended his handling of relief efforts. He said the devastated area was larger than Britain, and on Sept. 2 signed a $10.5 billion relief funding bill for victims of Katrina.

Azerbaijan Aid

An estimated 70 nations, from Azerbaijan to Venezuela, have offered cash contributions to the Red Cross totaling more than $100 million, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Many countries also have donated supplies ranging from helicopters to emergency rations.

Americans responded with massive donations. By noon yesterday, contributions totaled at least $404 million, ``a pace that is unprecedented in recent American history,'' the Chronicle of Philanthropy said.

``There's still a significant amount of the city under water,'' said Colonel Richard Wagenaar, New Orleans district commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As many as 300 personnel are trying to get the biggest pumping station in the city working, which could take three days, he said.

The hurricane devastated energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, source of about one-third of the oil consumed in the U.S. and about one-fifth of the natural gas. As of Sept. 3, 79 percent of the region's crude-oil production was out of action, while 58 percent of gas production was shut, the Minerals Management Service in Washington said.

Oil Declines

Crude prices fell for a second day in London after the International Energy Agency said Sept. 2 it will release oil from stockpiles for the next 30 days. Brent crude for October delivery fell as much as $1.31 a barrel, or 2 percent, to $64.75 a barrel in electronic trading.

An Entergy Corp. crew of 9,400 by last night had restored power to about half of the utility's 1.1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi who were without electricity.

An additional 7,000 active U.S. military personnel were deployed to the area, along with an additional 10,000 National Guardsmen. As many as 40,000 guard members will be on Katrina duty, according to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, head of the National Guard Bureau.

Bush ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff until Sept. 20 in honor of the victims.

Rice rejected accusations by some blacks that the federal government's slow response was motivated by racism. ``Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race,'' she told reporters on her plane yesterday.

Katrina, the 11th named storm of the six-month hurricane season that ends Nov. 30, will cause more than $100 billion in total economic losses, according to Risk Management. Standard & Poor's said insured damage may be $50 billion, the most of any hurricane. Andrew in 1992 cost as much as $43 billion.

Lloyd's of London said a Gulf of Mexico hurricane of Katrina's size would lead to losses of $60 billion, with $10 billion in offshore energy and $50 billion in mainland property.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Arthur in Washington at barthur@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2005 03:46 EDT