From The Washington Post (free subscription required):

Battle-hardened troops back from Baghdad find little difference - apart from the flood water - between their experiences there and their latest jobs in New Orleans.

Those war-zone images and instincts came flooding back Friday when Atkinson and 300 other Arkansas guardsmen, wearing helmets and full body armor, rolled into the chaos of central New Orleans.

“It’s like Baghdad on a bad day,” said Spec. Brian McKay, 19, of Mount Ida, Ark

The soldiers are trying to contain a crime spree:

“We’re having some pretty intense gun battles breaking out around the city,” said Capt. Jeff Winn of the New Orleans police SWAT team. “Armed gangs of from eight to 15 young men are riding around in pickup trucks, looting and raping,” he said. Residents fearful of looters often shout to passing Humvees to alert the soldiers to crimes in progress.

The soldiers are quite prepared to use lethal force:

“If we’re out on the streets, we’ll fight back and shoot until we kill them. That’s too bad but that’s what has got to happen,” said Spec. Jake Perry, 20, of Camden, Ark. “I didn’t spend a year in Iraq to come to Louisiana and get killed.”

I really don’t fancy the looters’ chances at all…

Elsewhere in the Post it’s reported that a million Gulf Coast residents are homeless and will remain so for months to come. The state of Texas has already declared itself full and unable to take any more people.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials said that about 50,000 people are in Louisiana shelters, but Brecke Latham, spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), said that virtually none of the 1 million evacuees have been able to return to their homes. Many are now living in hotels, with family or with friends, but officials said they are preparing for many of them to need help as their money, or their welcome, wears out.

Survivors are being taken to states as far away as Michigan, Utah and California.