NEW YORK (Reuters) - – Survivors of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda attacks and relatives of victims welcomed his killing as the death of the devil on Monday but they also expressed anger and renewed grief for loved ones.

From Ground Zero where the Twin Towers were destroyed by hijacked planes in the September 11, 2001, attacks to a park outside the White House, people cheered the killing of the man most hated and reviled by Americans -- Osama bin Laden.

"Osama bin Laden had the devil's blood running through his veins and this is a joyous day for us," said Rosemary Cain, who lost her 35-year-old son at the World Trade Center.

Bin Laden was shot in the head by U.S. forces who stormed his compound in Pakistan after a decade-long manhunt during which he continually evaded capture.

Maureen Santora's 23-year-old son was killed in the 9/11 attacks but she said he was now "screaming and yelling and having a great time up in heaven today."

Some victims' family members also were upset bin Laden was living in apparent luxury and not cowed in a cave. They were angry, too, that his remains were disposed of respectfully, reminding them of unresolved fights over New York's memorial.

The news of bin Laden's death, announced by President Barack Obama late on Sunday, was greeted on American streets with jubilation, relief, closure and prayers for his victims.

"I never figured I'd be excited about someone's death," said firefighter Michael Carroll, 27, at Ground Zero, whose father, also a fireman, died in the September 11 attacks. "It's finally here. It feels good."

"HE MURDERED MY BROTHER"

There also was visceral hatred expressed bluntly.

"I would like to have pissed on his body ... He murdered my brother," said John Cartier, 42, an electrician who survived the attacks and was holding a picture of his brother James Cartier, who was 26 when he died at the World Trade Center.

At the site, which is still years from being rebuilt and where an emotional 10th anniversary is planned, hundreds sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Some popped champagne, others drank beer, some threw rolls of toilet paper.

"It was like a frat party. It was an excuse for people to ... proclaim ourselves as No. 1," said Sebastian Slayter, 22, who saw the 9/11 attacks from a few blocks away. "It didn't seem like anyone was searching for any knowledge ... we should be celebrating for the right reasons: The monster is dead."

But celebrations were tempered as old wounds reopened.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York noted a decade after the attacks, which killed 343 New York firefighters, more than 100 firefighters have since died from toxic exposures, and many others are chronically ill.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Americans to reject intolerance after a Portland, Maine, mosque was daubed with anti-Islam graffiti; "Osama today, Islam tomorow (sic)."

Stuart Kestenbaum of Maine, whose brother Howard died in the World Trade Center said, "There is a sense of closure but also of awe at all the loss that followed the original loss ... so I didn't feel celebratory, more reflective."

Nearly 3,000 people died when planes hijacked by bin Laden's followers flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks shocked the world and sparked a hunt for the plot's architect.

Bin Laden had been in hiding since he eluded U.S. forces and Afghan militia in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001. He had taunted the West and directed militant Islamist activities with taped messages from his hideout.

The announcement of bin Laden's death and his speedy burial at sea had the potential to set off conspiracy theorists.

"It has unfortunately opened this up to the possibility of conspiracy theories," said Sally Regenhard, who lost her 28-year-old son on 9/11.

Survivors of other al Qaeda attacks were grateful.

"Very well done to the Yanks. They deserve their praise," Sean Cassidy, whose 22-year-old son Ciaran was killed in the 2005 London bombings, told the BBC.

Al Qaeda first struck in East Africa in 1998, killing hundreds, mostly Africans, in suicide bombing at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. "Kenyans are happy and thank the U.S. people, the Pakistani people and everybody else who managed to kill Osama," Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said.

Amid the euphoria, world leaders and security experts noted the threat of terrorism remained and urged vigilance.

John Falding, whose partner Anat Rosenberg was killed by a suicide bomber on a bus in Tavistock Square, London, told the BBC: "There are plenty more willing to fill his shoes."

Watching the flag-waving on television in New York, Donna Marsh O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died in the September 11 attack, said she saw little reason to celebrate.

"Osama bin Laden is dead and so is my daughter," she said. "His death didn't bring her back."

(This story was corrected in paragraph 20 to say Sally Regenhard's son, not brother)

(Additional reporting by Vicky Buffery and Alexandria Sage in Paris, Avril Ormbsy in London and Basil Katz, Zachary Goelman and Daniel Trotta in New York, Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Writing by Mark Egan; Editing by Bill Trott)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States made the right decision to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to an online poll on www.reuters.com on Monday that also gives President Barack Obama a boost.

U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday, bringing a dramatic end to the long manhunt for the man who was the most powerful symbol of Islamist militancy.

Seventy-nine percent who participated in the poll said Washington made the right decision to kill bin Laden, compared with 14 percent who said no and 7 percent who were not sure.

But only 25 percent said they felt safer after the death of the al Qaeda leader, compared with 59 percent who said they did not.

Obama got a fair amount of credit for killing bin Laden, with 37 percent saying he deserved the most credit, while 13 percent said his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush, should get the credit. Some 50 percent said neither should get credit for the raid.

A slim majority of respondents, or 51 percent, said bin Laden's killing had not changed their perception of Obama's leadership. But 29 percent said it made them feel more favorable to him and 13 percent said they now feel much more favorable. Seven percent said the killing made them feel less so.

Forty-three percent voted that Obama is handling the war on terrorism effectively, compared with 26 percent who said he was handling it ineffectively. Thirty-one percent said they were not sure.

The poll questions were each answered by some 1,200 to 1,300 U.S. and foreign readers of Reuters.com.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Philip Barbara)

BIRDS POINT, Mo (Reuters) – Flames shot up and a loud boom was heard on Monday as the U.S. government blew a hole in a Mississippi River flood levee in a bid to save several towns in Illinois and Kentucky from being inundated.

A witness said water began to pour out of the hole after the explosion and is expected to eventually flood some 130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri in order to spare the towns.

The deliberate destruction of the levee after nightfall and during a driving rain, ended days of fierce debate and legal wrangling over how to cope with the rising flood waters of the Mississippi and nearby Ohio river.

Carlin Bennett, a commissioner in the rural Missouri county that will bear the brunt of the flooding, estimated the U.S. government action will cause $1 billion in property damage.

"It's going to be like a mini tsunami through here," he said. "We can't really imagine it right now."

The state of Missouri petitioned all the way to the Supreme Court in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the action. The states of Illinois and Kentucky opposed Missouri, joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in pushing for destruction of the levee in hopes of saving several towns in their states.

One town the Corps hopes to save is Cairo, an historic community of 2,800 people located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi. The town was largely empty after a mandatory evacuation on Sunday.

Located at the southern tip of Illinois between Missouri and Kentucky, Cairo was an important destination for runaway slaves during the Civil War. Both Missouri and Kentucky were slave states and Illinois was a free state.

Its population is more than 60 percent African-American and a third of its residents have incomes below the poverty level.

"I'm very relieved," said James Wilson, spokesman for Cairo mayor Judson Childs. "I wish they could have done it 3 days earlier." He said some people in the nearby town of Olive Branch already have lost their homes to flooding.

But Deborah Byrne, a minister in Charleston, Missouri who owns 550 acres of the farmland in the path of the waters released by the explosion, said it would take years for the county to recover from the controversial operation.

"It's not just 130,000 acres and rich landowners. There are many families connected with these farms. This land has come down through many generations."

Witnesses near the spot where the levee was breached on Monday said the flood waters were already so high that it was hard to tell where the Mississippi River usually ends.

Trees were standing in water along the banks and water swelled along the sides of the highway. Flood waters covered farm fields and rain was relentless all day, with a cold wind.

On top of the levee, reporters in TV trucks waited along with army personnel. Across already flooded fields could be seen the lights of U.S. Army corps barges, where the explosives were detonated to blow up the levee. Flood water covered the road entering the town of Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Miriam Moynihan; writing by James B. Kelleher;)