Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Holway has answered hundreds of pleas to save citizens from murky New Orleans floodwater in recent days, but on Thursday for the first time, a shoving match on a high balcony led to an urgent call for backup from a fellow lifesaver.

Amid 100-degree heat and dwindling food and water, the growing desperation among the thousands of people stranded in New Orleans is adding a new threat of hostilities to the dangerous and exhausting mission waged around the clock by about 100 Coast Guard aviators flying from a disaster headquarters here.

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