Two owners of a nursing home in flood-ravaged St. Bernard Parish, La. were charged with 34 counts of negligent homicide Tuesday.

The charges stem from the deaths of elderly patients at St. Rita's nursing home in Chalmette, located just southeast of New Orleans.

The patients drowned in the flooding after hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29.

"The pathetic thing in this case was that they were asked if they wanted to move them and they did not,'' Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti said.

"They were warned repeatedly that this storm was coming. In effect, their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people.''

Salvador Mangano and his wife, Mable, were released on $50,000 bail each.

Jim Cobb, their lawyer, said his clients followed the nursing home's evacuation plan and that St. Bernard Parish officials were to blame.

"They sat and waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials of St. Bernard Parish that never came,'' he said.

In addition, some of the patients were too frail to move, Cobb said.

Foti said he is also investigating the discovery of more than 40 corpses at the Memorial Medical Centre in New Orleans.

Temperatures inside the flooded-out facility hit 41 degrees Celsius as the patients waited for days for evacuation, a hospital official said.

Louisiana's death toll is now officially 423.

To compound the bad news, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said the city is broke. While the city is working to secure lines of credit, it can't meet its next payroll, he said.

Good news

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport received its first commercial flight Tuesday, which carried about two dozen emergency workers and returning residents.

"Welcome home,'' airport director Roy Williams said to the arriving passengers. "We're glad to see you.''

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said significant progress was being made in draining the city, with Oct. 8 the estimated completion date.

Nagin said more than 40 pumping stations are now operational, including the city's biggest pump.

The Port of New Orleans is also operational, although running at just a fraction of capacity.

"From a commercial and psychological standpoint, this is five stars,'' port president Gary LaGrange said.

"This shows the people of New Orleans their city is back in business.''

In other developments:

• U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Katrina was the worst disaster for transportation in U.S. history. He estimated the damage to bridges and highways at $3 billion US.
• Insurance experts doubled their estimate of insured losses caused by Katrina to at least $40 billion US.
• Washington lawmakers proposed some tax changes to aid storm victims, including letting them access retirement accounts without penalty.
• Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial called for a compensation fund for the hurricane victims, similar to the fund created for victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.