Authorities had mounting concerns about public health issues in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday as bodies continued to wash ashore after five days at sea and a possible dysentery outbreak shut down a shelter for hundreds.

Fuel shortages are hampering supply efforts and causing a breeding ground for disease. There is no working sewage system. Portable toilets are scarce. People are trying to live in damaged homes, finding refuge in their vehicles and in some cases living with strangers.

Authorities fear a disease outbreak could add to the toll of fatalities from the hurricane. The number of confirmed deaths in the six southernmost counties rose to 134. Family and friends are driving through the streets of ravaged neighborhoods asking the few residents still in their homes if they know what happened to their loved ones.

The stench of decay - human and animal - was growing stronger in flattened neighborhoods where cranes would be needed to untangle the debris. Bodies swept out to sea in the storm Sunday are still coming back, authorities said.

On the bright side, Gulfport officials reported some positive developments. At a late afternoon session, it was noted that the Chamber of Commerce has secured 700 Florida houses for displaced Gulfport residents and that a truckload of baby supplies is en route to the city.

Water service is being restored neighborhood by neighborhood and power is back on in some pockets of the city.

In other developments Saturday:

• A suspected dysentery outbreak resulted in the evacuation of an American Red Cross shelter on Irish Hill Road across the street from Keesler Air Force Base.
• Fear of a cholera outbreak caused emergency officials to order the areas south of the CSX Railroad in Long Beach and Pass Christian be evacuated.
• The American Red Cross was running low on fuel for its relief efforts.
• No federal or private relief agency had erected tents or other temporary housing for the homeless, and officials across the Coast criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Keesler Air Force Base for not doing enough.
• Unofficial damage estimates indicated that 75 percent of all structures in the three Coast counties sustained damage, according to information from a morning briefing with relief agencies.
• The Interstate 110 bridge over the Back Bay of Biloxi has been reduced to one lane in each direction due to cracks detected under the northbound lanes. Motorists are advised to avoid the highway.

The shelter with the suspected dysentery outbreak has lacked functioning plumbing for five days. Hundreds of people stayed there after the storm. Eight buses arrived at Michele Seventh Grade School around 1 p.m. to begin taking people to Georgia.

"There's a lot of diarrhea, a lot of bad water. Dysentery is the word," said Patrick Velasco, a member o the medical team under the direction of FEMA.

Confusion ensued. People asked where they were going in Georgia.

"I cannot reveal that for fear of it being mobbed," Velasco said. "It is a state-of-the-art Red Cross facility across the border."

Many who have spent the week at the shelter were walking around town, unaware of the urgent shutdown. Families were split up; those left at the shelter debated whether to evacuate.

Coastwide, there is no functioning plumbing in most neighborhoods and portable toilets are scarce.

Officials reported trucks with supplies for the Biloxi area stranded without fuel in or near Meridian, about a four-hour drive from Gulfport, according to Stephen Peranich, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. Peranich said he spoke Saturday with a federal emergency relief staffer the declined to name.

"This was known yesterday but it's still a problem today," Peranich said.

The Red Cross faced the possibility of parking its supply trucks until more fuel arrives. Mississippi Public Broadcasting, a key source of news and critical information for many throughout the state, put out an urgent call for diesel fuel so it could continue to broadcast.

On the fuel front, the Chevron oil refinery in Pascagoula won't return to operation for weeks or months, a spokesman said Saturday, but it is pumping 300,000 gallons of gasoline onto tanker trucks daily.

The gasoline was stormed as a precaution just before Hurricane Katrina struck on Monday, said the spokesman, Steve Renfroe. He said he did not know the volume of gasoline stored at the refinery.

Renfroe said eight Chevron and Texaco stations had reopened in southern Mississippi as of Saturday afternoon, and the company expected five more to reopen in the area in the next week or so.

"Our hope is that people will see more stations open and significantly shorter lines," Renfroe said.

The Chevron Products Corp. refinery, which employs about 1,200 people, was evacuated for the storm. He said engineers are still trying to assess the damage to the plant. Employees, many of whom won't be able to return to work until the plant goes back online, can call the company's newsline if they have phone service, he said. About 300 of the company's workers lost or suffered significant damage to their homes.

One caravan that did make it to the Coast consisted of eight charter buses with doctors and nurses from Baldwin and Mobile counties. More National Guardsmen arrived, and Navy personnel continued to provide emergency services, but Keesler Air Force Base still had not initiated any response.

No new shelters had been provided for the homeless the day after President Bush stood in hurricane-ravaged East Biloxi and promised help.

"FEMA will be providing a lot of temporary housing," he said. "That's one of the responsibilities that FEMA assumes, to find shelter for people. In terms of the longer term, the government has got the capacity to make low-interest loans and help businesses get back going. Once the situation gets stabilized, there will be the appropriate authorities to start passing out the forms necessary for people to apply for the relief and the help they can get. The federal government will be providing the temporary housing."

Officials across the Coast said they were not satisfied with FEMA's response.

Donovan Scruggs, director of community development for Ocean Springs, said on Saturday - five days after the hurricane struck - that this city did not even have a FEMA contact.

"Outside assistance from FEMA has been pretty much nonexistent," Scruggs said. "We've been running the show, but nobody here has any experience managing a disaster. We need the experienced show-runners."

One FEMA representative was present in Hancock County.

Mike Beeman, the FEMA coordinator for Harrison County, said Friday that federal agencies are responding to the area's needs but several logistical problems had emerged - most notably the fuel shortage. Beeman said a task force for temporary shelters had been established. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is also in the area and has programs for people who need tarps and help with their homes.

Beeman said FEMA is only a partner in the relief efforts and the organization takes its cues on where to place needed services from local and state officials.

Harrison County Supervisor Connie Rockco said the Coast needed more aid from Keesler Air Force Base "during our worse time of need."

The county requested a special air-conditioning system to keep the courthouse cool for the people's needs, she said, but had heard nothing back from the base.

"I'm an Air Force brat," Rockco said. "I'm totally, totally disappointed."

Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, the communications director at Keesler Air Force Base, said on Friday that 50 percent of the base had been damaged, including major damage to housing areas. "We are in contact with local authorities to do what we can, but before we can help, we need to first take care of our folks and get the infrastructure in place," Foss said. "Keesler got hit as well."

The base had no electricity on Friday, but did have water.

Joe Spraggins, director of civil defense for Harrison County, said the Seabee base in Gulfport has offered its engineering expertise and equipment to help in the Gulfport area.

On Saturday morning, Mississippi Power announced that it had restored power to 40,000 Coast homes. Company spokesman Kurt Brautigam said it will take "several weeks" to restore power to everyone in the Coast's power grid.

Some of the injured and ill were transported from Coast hospitals to other locations after a caravan of eight charter buses manned by doctors and nurses from Mobile and Baldwin counties arrived Saturday afternoon.

"Hospitals all along the Gulf Coast have made beds available," said Dr. Charles Johnson.