Posted on 09/02/2005 9:15:38 AM PDT by Jalapeno
The first busload of New Orleans refugees to reach the Reliant Astrodome overnight was a group of people who commandeered a school bus in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and drove to Houston looking for shelter.
Jabbar Gibson, 20, said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city.
Gibson drove the bus from the flooded Crescent City, picking up stranded people, some of them infants, along the way. Some of those on board had been in the Superdome, among those who were supposed to be evacuated to Houston on more than 400 buses Wednesday and today. They couldn't wait.
The group of mostly teenagers and young adults pooled what little money they had to buy diapers for the babies and fuel for the bus.
After arriving at the Astrodome at about 10:30 p.m., however, they initially were refused entry by Reliant officials who said the aging landmark was reserved for the 23,000 people being evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.
"Now, we don't have nowhere to go," Gibson said. "We heard the Astrodome was open for people from New Orleans. We ain't ate right, we ain't slept right. They don't want to give us no help. They don't want to let us in."
Milling about the Reliant entrance, Sheila Nathan, 38, told her teary-eyed toddler that she was too tired to hold him.
"I'm trying to make it a fairy tale so they won't panic," said Nathan, who had four grandchildren in tow. "I have to be strong for them."
After about 20 minutes of confusion and consternation, Red Cross officials announced that the group of about 50 to 70 evacuees would be allowed into the Astrodome.
All were grateful to be out of the devastation and misery that had overtaken their hometown.
"I feel good to get out of New Orleans," said Demetrius Henderson, who got off the bus with his wife and three children. Many of those around him alternated between excited, cranky and nervous, clutching suitcases or plastic garbage bags of clothes.
They looked as bedraggled as their grueling ride would suggest: 13 hours on the commandeered bus driven by a 20-year-old man. Watching bodies float by as they tried to escape the drowning city. Picking up people along the way. Three stops for fuel. Chugging into Reliant Park, only to be told initially that they could not spend the night.
Every bit worth it.
"We took the bus and got out of the city. We were trying to get out of the city," James Hickerson said.
Several passengers on the bus said they took the matter into their own hands earlier Wednesday because they felt rescuers and New Orleans authorities were too slow in offering help.
"They are not worried about us," said Makivia Horton, 22, who is five months pregnant.
I disagree with ,"This was such a case."
They could barely talk... Feet Swollen, Fecese all over themselves.... barefooted.... Hungry... Looking for lost loved ones... I'm not sure they would have been any help to the effort...
Note, they didn't have to have politicians forcibly "tax" their hardearned and scarce funds, and they used more intellectual ability than did the so-called local and state "leaders" who bemoaned their situation and looked to their nanny federal government for solutions. That strategy now provides them an excuse for blaming FEMA, the President, and Washington.
If you are a conservative who believes in America's founding ideas, then you will judge these people by their actions and the positive results of those actions--not by their patterns of speech. They were brave beyond belief, and they were looking out for each other! That is the spirit of the people of Jamestown, of the pioneers who forged through a wilderness to the West, and it is a spirit that is to be encouraged!
The leaders of the Far Left, on the other hand, use good grammar, but their ideas are bankrupt and counterproductive, always looking for ways to gain power for themselves by causing citizens to look to government for answers to their problems.
More power to this young man and his busload of independent thinkers!
Yes... Send them... Please...
800 sal-army could tell you where to send them.
I have no different source, but the mindset of the looters and the bus thief look to be identical.
We Kuntry down hur...
Where does it say in the story that he jumped ahead of anybody? You are making it sound as if these people stormed the bus in front of a line of waiting people, threw off the bus driver, and took off. The article does not indicate this in any way, shape or form. The story also says they picked up people along the way and pooled their money to buy necessities. If I had been stuck in NO, I would have been happy to get out of town with this group.
Exactloy...he should be sent back to New Orleans with a batltefield's Lieutenant commission, and get to work.
"Every citizen needs an individual plan, also."
It's funny you should say this. Last weekend I just put kits into both my cars that have changes of clothing for the kids, diapers, full diabetes supplies for my son, money, food, a case of water, plus plastic bags and a bucket for sanitation. I also put in one of those quart jugs of bleach, plus a box of straws.
Problem: I also have copies of all my important papers. Phone numbers to all of my insurance agents with all the account numbers. I have important medical records and copies of diplomas and certificates, etc.
So then it occurs to me - what if some a$$hole steals my car?
So, the new plan is to have all of that stuff in there, but now I've wired the docs and the money to the bottom inside of the back seat. I'm hoping if somebody does steal it that it won't get ripped off there.
The other thing I've done is make arrangements with people who live North, East, and South of here, and told them if the same thing happens they can stay with us.
My negatives are in a safety deposit box at the bank, which isn't going to do me much good if my city ends up a smoking hole, so we put most of the pictures we have on CD's, DVD,s and digital tape, and their all in a bag we can grab on the way out.
I can walk away from my home with my family and not look back. I'm not saying it wouldn't break my heart, but I can always build a new house somewhere else.
My youngest would have died under the circumstances in NO given his diabetes.
Amen, what a great kid, that took a lot of guts for him to get behind the wheel.....
And they didn't just save themselves, they stopped and picked up people on the way. They not only took the initiative they thought of others too.
Thanks for posting the proof. From the picture it is easy to see why they aren't using the buses now,they are water logged, but it looks like Mayor Nagin had the means to transport everyone to a safe place during the week before Katrina hit.
Nature and Nagin are a deadly duo.
Complete and utter BS. The forecast of a near hit wasn't made until 11:00 p.m. EDT Friday night, or about 54 hours before landfall. Before then, it was forecast to hit the Florida panhandle. At the 10:00 p.m. CDT Saturday advisory, the storm was still a Category 3, with top sustained winds of 115 mph. It was not upgraded to a Category 5 until Sunday morning, about 20 hours before landfall.
Reminds me of a story - I grew up in Hawaii, and was talking to a man who spoke with a Hawaiian pidgin accent. He served in WWII and used to hang with guys from New York who would be telling him, "Youse guyz from Hawaii - you moidah da English language don't chooz?"
To: exodus
You'd think that most people would, even without money, leave the area, but poor folks aren't used to thinking that way. They wouldn't see it as a choice between 'broke and alive somewhere safe' or the chance of 'still broke and in an unsafe disaster area.'
They would think that their best interests would be served by riding out the storm, and counting on government or charitable organizations to help them if things got too out of hand. Poor folks don't have the resources to take action based upon what 'might' happen.
In this case it's plain that they made a bad call, but bad choices do not negate their Right to protect themselves after the fact.
Taking that bus was the correct decision.
# 143 by exodus - "... during an emergency we are well within our right to do whatever it takes to protect ourselves. Government workers are not required to help us during an emergency. We must be proactive in some cases. This was such a case."
You don't agree with my opinion that it is a good moral judgment to drive a busload of refugees to a safe haven. I can see your reasoning, I think, based upon an 'it's not their property' argument.
While in most cases I'd agree, I can't do so in an emergency situation, such as in this case.
No. Nobody was waiting to board. It was a school bus. Nobody was using it. It wasn't going to be taking anyone anywhere until these folks took it.
Are you saying that you do not like how I talk? Care to explain? I have no idea who you are...so far you're just a few letters bunched together on a computer screen- are you real?
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