Posted on 09/01/2005 7:45:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin
NEW ORLEANS (AP) At the front of the line, the weary refugees waded through ankle-deep water, grabbed a bottle of water from state troopers and happily hopped on buses that would deliver them from the horrendous conditions of the Superdome.
At the back end of the line, people jammed against police barricades in the rain. Refugees passed out and had to be lifted hand-over-hand overhead to medics. Pets were not allowed on the bus, and when a police officer confiscated a little boy's dog, the child cried until he vomited. "Snowball, snowball," he cried.
The scene played out Thursday as the plodding procession out of the Superdome entered its second day. Refugees slowly began arriving by the busload at the Astrodome in Houston, where they got a shower, a hot meal and a cool place to sleep.
"I would rather have been in jail," Janice Jones said in obvious relief at being out of the dome. "I've been in there seven days and I haven't had a bath. They treated us like animals. Everybody is scared."
Miranda Jones, her daughter, was standing next to her, carrying her father's ashes -- the only thing they were able to save from her house before Hurricane Katrina blasted New Orleans.
An angry Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans' emergency operations, watched the slow exodus from the Superdome on Thursday morning and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency response was inadequate. The chaos at the nearby New Orleans Convention Center was considerably worse than the Superdome, with an angry mob growing increasingly violent and few options for refugees to leave the scene.
"This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," Ebbert said. "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
By early afternoon, a line of people a half-mile long snaked from the Superdome through the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel, then to where buses waited. State troopers, making every effort to be cheerful, handed out bottles of water and tried to keep families and groups together.
"I need three," a burly state trooper called out. "I need four."
At one point, the guards held up the line so a young teen at the front could go get her sister, farther back.
The situation in the back of the line was vastly different.
National Guardsmen stood side by side with rifles. Luggage, bags of clothes, pillows, blankets were strewn in the puddles.
After a teenager was taken away by police for fighting, Capt. John Pallerre of the Texas Air Force National Guard told the crowd on public address: "We can't have people fighting. I have kids here who are crying and frightened and can't find their parents. Be adults. We're going to get you out of here. It takes a while. I'm not god. If I was, you'd all be home with your family."
At one point a man held a tiny baby high over his head. A woman pointed to an elderly man in a wheelchair -- hoping to get the attention of National Guard troops who were taking the old and infirm to buses first.
A woman in tank top and shorts, her teeth chattering, was taken from the sea of people and into the line heading through a shopping mall and conference center and back out to buses waiting blocks from the dome. She cuddled her baby, who wore only a diaper.
The first buses left the Superdome late Wednesday, and officials in Texas said 2,000 people had already arrived at the Astrodome, some 350 miles away, by late morning Thursday. Besides the 25,000 or so hurricane refugees being brought to Houston, officials said another 25,000 would be taken to San Antonio and other locations.
The Astrodome's new residents will be issued passes that will let them leave and return as they please, something that wasn't permitted in New Orleans. Organizers also plan to find ways to help the refugees contact relatives.
Ebbert was superb, don't you think?
What the heck did they expect ? Club Med! The left has poisoned the minds of so many.
Wow, she went to the supurdome 3 days Before the storm. Hmmmm?
That is disgraceful. There are so few people who managed to save their pets, and these children are so completely traumatized already. What harm could there be in letting a handful of pets onto the bus, and having animal shelter staff take them at the other end, where they can assure the child the dog will be safe and that he can visit the dog? I seriously doubt that a dog named "Snowball" who a little boy loved so much that he cried 'til he vomited, was a vicious pit bull -- probably something like a toy poodle. This is the sort of thing that can turn a little boy into the kind of vicious thug that's been terrorizing the city. He'll hate and distrust police officers for the rest of life, and taxpayers will probably end up spending an extra half million dollars down the road for rehab and prison for this kid. This child and his parent(s) obviously went to great lengths to save and sustain this little dog, helping the child believe that things are under control and that people are able and willing to care for their loved ones, and that the future would be brighter. He doesn't believe that any more.
Refuge of LAST RESORT!!
Maybe those who are complaining should have just stayed home.
>>This is the sort of thing that can turn a little boy into the kind of vicious thug that's been terrorizing the city. He'll hate and distrust police officers for the rest of life, and taxpayers will probably end up spending an extra half million dollars down the road for rehab and prison for this kid.<<
I must say, you certainly do have a flair for the dramatic.
Nah, it's democrat math.
Same way they count votes.
There's a satellite photo, and it looks like at least one, and maybe two of the tall buildings near the Superdome have pools on the roofs.
That water would look mighty good to people now who are going to be stuck there a while.
http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00205/Satellittbilde_fra__205774a.jpg
I'm rather Pollyannaish myself. However, the Ebbert person needs to grab a mirror. Disaster planning begins at home. I'm a housewife, but I've been exposed to enough "worse case scenario" planning that I would have expected a city the size of New Orleans to be prepared for some of this. I can't believe they did not have supplies stored at the Superdome for this. I can't believe they were not more organized. I guess I expect too much.
There is a lesson to be learned here. We all need to be prepared to fend for ourselves at any given moment. And we need to be prepared for the animals that will inevitably show up to take away anything they may decide they want. The government (local, state, and/or national) may or may not be prepared. Best be prepared yourself.
You let one dog on they all have to go on.
So, perhaps we should have just shot down the immature thug and buried him and his pet in the same hole? < /dripping sarc>
Sorry, but with the scale of death and destruction, the very LAST thought on my mind is a pet and the potential for future harm to the kid from the additional trauma.
Exactly! YOU are responsible for your own well-being; not the State or the police.
I can guarantee you that if he said he wasn't Buddha or Allah the AP would have capitalized the spelling.
Oh a upbeat refugee thread ? Or were you hoping the kid puking because they took Snowball would cheer us up ?
This makes me wonder if we REALLY did help the tsunami victims. This is disgraceful.
"This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," Ebbert said. "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
Uh, Tony, are you the guy who was supposed to have made The Plan? Seems like yes, judging from your job title, you failed. And like a little boy, now try to lay it off on someone else.
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