THOUSANDS of residents of New Orleans poured back into the city in a giant slow-moving traffic jam yesterday to see for the first time the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters.

As stunned natives viewed their wrecked and destroyed homes, President Bush visited Louisiana for the second time amid an extraordinary row between the White House and local officials over who had overall control of the relief effort. While each blamed the other for the slow response to the disaster, the city’s mayor said that 10,000 people may have died.

With the focus shifting to the recovery of bodies, the residents of Jefferson Parish, west of the city, were allowed back into the middle-class suburb as the floodwaters had subsided enough for access. They were urged to salvage what they could from their homes and leave again by nightfall. They were greeted by a landscape of smashed trees, twisted street signs and ruined homes, all under several feet of water.

Gabriel Whitfield, 36, wept as he surveyed his house, caked in mud and mold, its contents destroyed. “It’s just like somebody punched me in the gut,” he said. “It’s hard to see something you worked so hard to accomplish just wiped out.”

After a weekend in which several of Mr Bush’s most senior Cabinet members visited the region, the White House faced mounting criticism over its slow response to the disaster, and continued efforts to limit the political damage. Mr Bush’s father, the former President, and his successor, Bill Clinton, announced the creation of a fund to help Katrina’s victims as they visited evacuees in Houston, Texas.

President Bush, who toured New Orleans and Mississippi on Friday, visited shelters in the Louisiana state capital, Baton Rouge, and the hard-hit town of Poplarville, Mississippi. The death toll in Mississippi rose to 161, but is expected to go up significantly as more bodies are recovered.

As White House officials continued to try to shift the blame for the slow response on to state and local officials, Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat senator, a centrist usually known for her moderation, said that she would “literally punch” Mr Bush, or any of his officials, if they continued to denigrate the local effort.

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Director, said that troops were going door-to-door to search for survivors, but added: “I think we need to prepare the county for what’s coming.” As floodwater recedes, “it’s going to be about as ugly a scene as I think you can imagine”.

In the most striking conflict since the disaster, Kathleen Blanco, the Governor of Louisiana, refused to allow the White House to have control of her state’s National Guard troops. A legacy of the Civil War is that the federal Government is sharply restricted in its involvement in an individual state’s military forces, particularly over domestic law enforcement.

Ms Blanco rejected its request to centralise the military operation. The White House wants LieutenantGeneral Russel Honore, the senior commander on the ground, to oversee the National Guard and active duty federal troops.

Ms Blanco and her staff were not informed of the President’s visit before he arrived. In a bizarre development, she in effect invited herself on Mr Bush’s tour of the hurricane-damaged areas of her state, as she had not been asked.

Mr Bush was not helped by an emotional television appearance on Sunday, played repeatedly yesterday, by Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish. Breaking down, he blamed the federal Government for the death of a friend’s mother, saying: “We have been abandoned by our own country.”

The Times-Picayune, Louisiana’s largest newspaper, published an open letter to Mr Bush, calling on him to fire every Federal Emergency Management Agency official.

“We’re angry, Mr President. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the Government’s shame.”

W.J. Riley, the deputy police chief for the city, said two of his officers had committed suicide, and at least 200 had deserted or resigned.

Five men were shot and killed during a firefight with police on Sunday, he said.

Times Recommends

• Peter Moore’s family say they can smile again
• Ambition always comes before a fall
• Putin: Russia needs more weapons to counter US