1 hour, 8 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Paratroopers of the Army`s 82nd Airborne Division plan to use small boats, including inflatable Zodiac craft, to launch a new search-and-rescue effort in flooded areas of central New Orleans, the division commander said Tuesday.

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In a telephone interview from his operations center at New Orleans International Airport, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said his soldiers` top priority is finding, recovering and evacuating people who want to get out of the flooded city.

Caldwell, who arrived in New Orleans on Saturday night to what he described as ``an absolutely chaotic situation`` at the international airport there, said conditions are improving, including a gradual return of electricity.

He said he and his soldiers spend their days on the streets of Orleans parish and their nights sleeping on the ground at the airport, with no toilet facilities, no showers and only military packaged meals and water for sustenance.

``We can go for weeks like this,`` he said. ``At least we`ll have homes to go back to.``

Caldwell said that about 3,000 82nd Airborne paratroopers from Fort Bragg, N.C., are there now and another 2,000 were due to arrive Tuesday. They are in addition to about 1,400 soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division and about 600 from the 13th Corps Support Command arriving from Fort Hood, Texas. All should be in place by Wednesday, he said.

The Pentagon has insisted for days that no more than 5,200 active-duty Army soldiers, plus 2,000 Marines, would be sent to help with Katrina relief, but Caldwell said he plans to have about 7,000 soldiers by Wednesday. That is in addition to about 2,000 Marines who are going to assist in damaged areas of Mississippi.