In New Orleans, nightmarish scenes were reported both inside and outside the City’s Convention Center. Outside an old man lay dead in a long chair in a grassy median. Infants wailed around him. Nearby, the corpse of an elderly woman lay stiffened in a wheelchair, covered by a plaid blanket. Another dead body was at her feet, wrapped in a white sheet. Inside thousands of refugees were trying to stay alive with little food, water and no electricity. Mayor Nagin said “the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe and we’re running out of supplies.” Federal relief officials have played almost no role. The head of FEMA, Michael Brown, admitted on CNN last night that his agency didn’t even know that thousands of hungry refugees were inside the convention center. Until yesterday the only food inside came after refugees broke into the center’s food-service area to retrieve water and other goods.