But did their buses make it? This is what I saw earlier today:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.trapped.tourists.ap/index.html
Trapped tourists lose chartered buses
Told they were confiscated by the military
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 8:28 p.m. EDT (00:28 GMT)
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Five days after Susan Dewey arrived in New
Orleans to celebrate her birthday, she was so desperate to get out that she
banded with hundreds of other tourists to hire 10 buses for $25,000 to
rescue them.
After waiting hours, they learned government officials had commandeered
their buses to evacuate others.
"We're the forgotten about," Dewey told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview Thursday. "The Louisiana officials are trying to get their people
out. They don't care about us."
Dewey, 23, of Washington, is one of countless tourists trapped in the city
amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
Dewey said she has no idea when or how she'll be able to leave, her best
chance lost Wednesday night when she learned the buses would never come.
"No one really knows what to do," Dewey said. "The people who are left are
just going and breaking into stores. ... You would just see people yesterday
dragging these bags of shoes. In the hotel, you would see piles of shoe
boxes."
Dewey and her boyfriend, Eric Hansen, were staying at Hotel Monteleone in
the French Quarter. They called Saturday before leaving Washington to make
sure the hotel would be open.
"They were like, 'Oh yeah, we don't close for anything,"' she said.
By the time the couple arrived, the city's bridges were closed and residents
were being evacuated. By Sunday, only one bar was open on Bourbon Street.
The hurricane hit Monday. The flooding and looting began Tuesday. By
Wednesday, Dewey was stealing to eat.
She said hotel staff encouraged guests to loot a nearby store for food, so
that's what Dewey and her boyfriend did.
"I had Power Bars, I had nuts because there were a couple (hotel) rooms
open, and we raided their mini bars," Dewey said.
That day, police went door-to-door to order local residents out of the hotel
and to the New Orleans Convention Center, Dewey said.
The handful of managers left at the hotel told guests they had booked 10
buses for $25,000 to evacuate them and those from the Crowne Plaza Astor
Downtown. Each passenger paid $45. The hotel staff began lining up elderly
and ill people outside about 7:30 p.m.
"I couldn't count how many wheelchairs you saw," Dewey said.
The guests waited until 9:30 p.m. when a manager told them the buses were
confiscated by the military.
Also planning to leave on one of the buses was Bill Hedrick, a Houston
oilman, and his family, including his mother-in-law, who uses a walker.
"We kept hearing they were coming, they were coming," he said. When the
crowd learned the buses would never arrive, "everyone was totally stunned,"
said Hedrick, who moved on to the convention center.
Dewey said she was ordered to head to the convention center.
I think they did (or a different set of buses) make it to the Marriot, because a caller into CNN from the Ritz Carlton was evacuated in that manner.
Chilling story in the Australian
Sept 02,2005
AUSTRALIANS trapped in flood-ravaged New Orleans are in fear of their lives as the city descends into lawlessness. Violence and racist behaviour had forced the group, including about 10 Australians, to take refuge in a hotel lobby after seeing people raped and murdered, he said.
"It's a real racist issue, apparently, between the locals, and they were segregated, and John said they would stab you as soon as look at you," Mr McNeil told ABC radio. "He's never been so scared in his life. He just said they had to get out of the dark otherwise, another night, he said, they would have gone. "He said the tension was just building so much it was impossible to stay in there." Tim and Joanne Miller, from Rockhampton in Queensland, have also made contact with their family in Australia. They said they were too scared to move. "The violence there is escalating. There are shootings – they've now got three dead bodies at the bottom of the stairwell where they are," their daughter Kelly-Rae Smith told ABC radio. No Australians are missing and there are no reports of Australian deaths or injuries. Those stranded will be taken by bus to Houston, Texas. (excerpt) http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16466739^1702,00.html The good thing is (I hope) they are safe now.