Vice Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard chief of staff, said he met with the presidents of eight parishes in the New Orleans area to discuss "the unity that is going to be needed to move this effort forward."
"There are a lot of people trying to help these parishes. You've got FEMA coming in, you've got the National Guard coming in, and Department of Defense people on the ground here with tremendous capabilities." (See video on Katrina's political fallout -- 2:22)
Those at the meeting discussed "a single coordinating mechanism so I could take all those different forces that are flowing into a parish and make sure they were being put to the highest priorities," Allen said.
He declined to describe specifics of the plan to reporters but said, "I think we know how to move forward from here." Allen said the discussions were "frank and open."
One goal, he said, was to better coordinate moving people to temporary shelters once they are evacuated and their immediate needs met.
In addition, he said, the effort to recover bodies was improving so the victims could be documented, families notified and the bodies transported.
The house-to-house search for bodies and survivors in New Orleans is moving at a deliberate pace. One recovery team accompanied by a CNN crew on Saturday covered three blocks in three hours, wading through the city's toxic floodwaters. (See video of boat search team -- 4:28)
"I don't think there's as many bodies as we first thought," said FEMA agent David Johnson.
State officials have not released an exact count of the dead, but Mayor Ray Nagin and others had previously suggested the toll could reach into the thousands.
In the central part of the city, where floodwaters are dropping, recovery workers entered Bethany Home, a nursing facility, to retrieve seven bodies and place them in a refrigeration truck.
As the hunt continues, authorities mark buildings with spray paint to indicate when they were searched and whether they contained victims or survivors.
Marines searched for survivors in the southern part of St. Bernard Parish, where a fire official said no rescue teams had ventured since the storm hit nearly two weeks earlier.
With the Federal Emergency Management Agency under fire for its slow response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Allen on Friday replaced FEMA boss Michael Brown as the top official in charge of the federal relief effort. (Full story)
Pumping proGREss
Allen said another goal was removing water from New Orleans as quickly as possible.
"Quite clearly, the No. 1 challenge right now is more pumping capacity," he told reporters.
"Everything is related to the unwatering at this point," he added.
The Army Corps of Engineers on Saturday revised its timetable for draining the floodwaters from New Orleans, saying the draining should be completed in October.
Drier weather, favorable winds, increased pumping capacity and the use of drainage breaches are credited for the proGREss, the corps said.
The corps earlier had estimated that the work could take up to 80 days in some areas.
But officials said Saturday that parts of New Orleans could be drained by October 2, with the eastern section of the city dry by October 8 and Chalmette drained by October 8. The outlying areas in Plaquemines Parish could be drained by October 18.
The corps said 32 of the 148 pumps in and around New Orleans were operating as of noon Saturday, and Allen said more are coming back on line.
Volunteers needed
The American Red Cross put out an urgent call Saturday for 40,000 new volunteers to help feed, house and comfort Hurricane Katrina victims.
"This is a disaster of such scope and such significance, it's not going to go away in a few weeks or a few months," Red Cross spokesman John Degnan said.
It is the largest recruitment drive in the organization's 125-year history.
The first shift of 10,000 recruits will be needed in two weeks to relieve 36,000 volunteers now deployed, he said.
Degnan said the Red Cross has sheltered 160,000 evacuees in 675 shelters across 23 states and the District of Columbia. Those evacuees have received 6 million hot meals, including 500,000 served Friday night.
Cheney visits
Vice President Dick Cheney visited evacuees in Texas on Saturday, his second hurricane-related trip in three days.
Cheney refused to discuss any involvement in Brown's removal, saying he supported the decision by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Cheney's trip came a day before a planned visit to the Gulf Coast by President Bush, who said Saturday that Americans will come together and make the region "more vibrant than ever." (Full story)
When Cheney was asked by reporters if he heard any complaints from the evacuees, he said the response was "uniformly positive."
But confusion erupted Saturday outside the Reliant Park complex in Houston, Texas, when evacuees showed up expecting to get $2,000 debit cards from the government -- only to be told the cards were not available.
Families were told they are instead eligible to get $2,000 in the form of a direct deposit to a bank account or a check mailed to an address they provide.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had been distributing $2,000 debit cards to some evacuees Friday as part of a pilot program.
FEMA spokesman David Passey said the program will conclude Saturday.
FEMA had announced that the cards would be available to evacuees in the Houston area outside the Reliant Park complex -- which is serving as a temporary home to thousands of evacuees -- on Saturday afternoon.
But Friday night, FEMA scrapped that part of the plan. Instead, cards would be available only to people staying at the shelters -- not to those who have found other living accommodations.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross began distributing debit cards Saturday morning at the St. Agnes Church in Houston, said spokesman GREgory Smith.
"We think that the best use of our staff resources is going to be getting people assistance through direct deposit or mail them a check," FEMA spokesman Ed Conley said Saturday in Houston.
Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, who has jurisdiction over the area that includes Reliant Park, told reporters the debit cards were part of a "GREat" and "compassionate program."
But he added that there is "frustration" at the local level because "they [FEMA] change their announcements so frequently," and people "don't know what to expect."
Eckels also said communications needed to improve "between FEMA national and FEMA local."
Evacuees looking to receive the funds can apply online at www.fema.gov, or over the phone at (800) 621-FEMA.
Other developments
The federal government Saturday abandoned its effort to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of bodies in New Orleans after CNN filed a lawsuit. (Full story)
As people returned to Biloxi, Mississippi, to assess the heavy damage, many said they are afraid that the thousands of dollars they have paid to insure their homes will cover only a small fraction of the cost to rebuild. "I want the insurance company to get off their butts and help us people out," said Bobby Migues, whose home was destroyed.
