Officers from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the Gretna City Police Department, and the Crescent City Connection Police blocked the Crescent City Connection to block evacuees crossing the Mississippi River from New Orleans into their area. Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson told UPI, "There was no food, water or shelter in Gretna City. We did not have the wherewithal to deal with these people. If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now - looted, burned and pillaged."