Posted on 09/02/2005 6:06:14 PM PDT by dennisw
TERRIFIED British students tell of dead bodies, rape, crack, gunshots, filth and a sickening stench filling the thick air. From Ryan Parry, Us Correspondent, Inside The New Orleans Superdome BRITISH students told yesterday how they stepped out of the horror of Hurricane Katrina into the hell of their Superdome "shelter".
A place of refuge became a terrifying trap, where knives and guns, crack cocaine use, threats of violence and racial abuse were rife.
Jamie Trout, 22, who kept a record of his four days there, said: "It was like something out of Lord of the Flies - one minute everything is calm and civil, the next it descends into chaos."
In one diary entry, he said: "A man has been arrested for raping a seven-year-old in the toilet, this place is hell, I feel sick. The smell is horrendous, there are toilets overflowing and people everywhere."
Brit diary-writer Jamie had been coaching football to disabled children as part of the Camp America scheme.
Jamie, who was with two friends, said: "We were in Miami for three or four days when Katrina first hit.
"We rode that storm out and then decided to go to New Orleans. We didn't realise the storm was heading that way."
He said of his eventual Superdome refuge: "There was a lot of heat from the people in there, people shouting racial abuse about us being white.
"The army warned us to keep our bags close to us and to grip them tight."
Jamie, an economics student from Sunderland, said he saw crack cocaine being used in the filthy toilets, youngsters breaking into soft drink machines and men brawling. Urine and excrement spilled into corridors where they were sleeping.
At one point, up to 30 British students gathered in the dome were so terrified of attack when the power went down that they set up a makeshift security cordon.
Zoe Smith, 21, from Hull, said: "All us girls sat in the middle while the boys sat on the outside, with chairs as protection.
"We were absolutely terrified, the situation had descended into chaos, people were very hostile and the living conditions were horrendous.
"We had to wash with tiny bottles of water, the sink was blocked and full of gunk. Even when we offered to help with the cleaning, the locals gave us abuse."
Some students said they saw an 18-inch knife confiscated from one man and many others had guns and other weapons.
Marisa Haigh, 23, from Guildford, who is studying at Birmingham University, and Claire Watkins, 23, a student from Bradford, had arrived in New Orleans last Saturday after a trip across the US.
Claire said: "We went out drinking on Saturday night and had an awesome time.
"On Sunday we had hangovers and hadn't heard or read anything about the hurricane coming in. We only realised there was something wrong when we went out in the street and no one was around, everywhere was shut or boarded up."
They were in the Superdome when Katrina hit. Marisa said: "There was a series of almighty bangs when the roof went and a panel flew off.
"There was a woman screaming, 'We're gonna die, we're all gonna die'."
Eventually many of the students were moved to the nearby basketball arena, thanks to Sgt Garland Ogden, a full-timer with the National Guard.
Jane Wheeldon, 20, said: "He went against a lot of rules to get us moved."
Yesterday Texas was ready to house 50,000 flood refugees - 25,000 of them in the Houston Astrodome, 350 miles away. The rest will go to San Antonio.
Rescue in some areas was suspended as looters ran amok.
Coast Guard Lt Cmdr Cheri Ben-Iesan said at emergency HQ: "Hospitals are trying to evacuate. At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them, telling them, 'You better come get my family'. City leader Mitch Landrieu toured stricken areas and was besieged by rescued people begging him to pass information to their families.
His pocket was full of scraps of paper on which he had scribbled down their phone numbers.
He contacted a woman whose father had been saved and told her: "Your daddy's alive, and he said to tell you he loves you."
Landrieu added: "She just started crying. She said, 'I thought he was dead'."
In Britain, worried relatives of the Superdome students were told by the Mirror their loved ones were safe.
From details given to our reporters at the scene, we passed on messages to families nationwide.
Zoe Smith's mother Sharon said in Hull: "That's brilliant. It's been horrendous not knowing what on earth has happened to her. I have barely slept."
Fine art publisher Janet Murray, 55, from Frome, Somerset, whose daughter Hannah was stranded, said: "I had not heard anything, thanks so much for letting me know."
After what they went through they're lucky to be alive? You seem to have some low expectations of the people who were in that convention center.
Birds chirp, crickets crick?!
The Mirror may very well be left wing. But pointing out that whites could be harrassed is not very left wing.
Hear, Hear. Most of the city is black, and practically everyone who couldn't evacuate is black. So of course most of the dirtbags are black, but so are most of the heroes and most of the decent ordinary folks just trying to get by.
There was some pretty crappy behavior after Hurricane Andrew, perpetrated by white people in white neighborhoods. Are they all scum and animals? Of course not.
Let's not let this board become Stormfront.
-ccm
Thanks, it's impossible to catch it all, you're help is really appreciated. The nuts are showing their true colors this week.
mjtobias (There is nothing new under the sun.)
And you're living proof.
These kids save up for two years to pay for their cheap around-the-world airfare. They stay in cheap hostels and work whereever they go, if they can.They come home and tell the locals about their travels, compelling more teenagers to want to do it.
You have a lot of issues, and I don't know why your anglophobia is a fit topic to trot around FR. More to the point, what is wrong, what is ant-conservative, about working to save money so that you can travel around the world and see what is going on in it? They earned it, it is their money, it is a worthy cause, and you should shut your yap about it. And, what is wrong with encouraging other kids to earn and save and go aout and see the world too?
And the reason that this is news is because a British newspaper is reporting about how American social conditions have affected some British teenagers. What I would be ashamed of is that we are such abysmal hosts to our overseas guests, but maybe hospitality to foreigners isn't part of your conservative social values.
All I can figure is that you are not a real conservative. You are just ani-inallekshul and derivatively anti-ferener. If you aren't you sure come across that way.
However all that does little to explain the COMPLETE AND TOTAL ABSENCE OF AID FOR THE AMERICAN CITIZENS WE HERDED INTO A BUILDING WITHOUT FOOD WATER AND UTILITIES AND LEFT FOR DAYS. A lot of people here say it was the disaster. It wasn't. It was an abject failure of local state and federal governments. My wife broke down in tears last night. There was a woman lying on the ground with her arm flung lifelessly out, her cheeks drawn tight and hollow, looking semi conscious with a baby clinging to her. At the same time they were showing helicopters dropping water and MREs into a crowd because the police were unable to maintain control. The food and water was not being distributed, it was being pillaged by the strongest. I am sure that woman did not recieve a drop.
The mayor told those people to go there. They obeyed and were left - many to die. It is a disgrace.
I understand about the buses being paid for but I don't agree. There are old people who are sicker than these tourists and the military can comandeer a bus if they have to. I agree that there was nout enough aid and PROTECTION for American citizens.
Oh I get it. You are depending on the same military who got those people in the condition they are in? BTW it was the national Guard not the military. They blew it. The hotel did what was necessary.
National Guard...military... it's the same to me. Either way, I disagree and I'm going to leave it at that. I'm tired of talking about it.
It seems to me that the buses were available and they were able to get in. A hotel chain was able to get them in, why wasn't the military? If you want to get mad at someone get mad at the military. It was doable and hasn't been done. It is not the hotel chains and guests fault - it is the governments.
The military does what they are told to do so we both agree that all this can be laid at the government's feet. Agreed.
Agreed. It is a national disgrace. There was national guard 70 miles away before the flooding started. They did nothing and it appears to be the Governors fault. Hundreds if not thousands died as a result. People are dying of thirst and lack of medical care in AMERICA!
The statist boot lickers around here blame it on the looters. The looting would have never got out of control if we put 7,000 National Guard on the streets of that city starting the next day. What did the government do - release the prisoners and let the city run wild! The horror of it escapes my ability to communicate.
The governor didn't shake a leg at the beginning with tragic results.
I'm sure they were bummed because they couldn't brush their teeth.
All good leftists still, I'm sure.
Awww,...we love ya,...besides, I've always loved ogre.
Especially when I add tomatoes with ogre or even breaded and deep fat fried like they used to make down South!
I'm surprised by one aspect of the whole affair.
New Orleans, Southern Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast in general has a fairly robust construction, engineering, and shipping community. New Orleans is host to some military commands which plan contingency plans for these types of catastrophies. Army Corps of Engineers and the oil & gas industry is structured to adapt to these types of situations with plenty of corporate knowledge in such operations.
The mouth of the Mississippi has considerable access to industrial shipping commodities and fishing industry.
The common man in the bayou can live off the bayou with little outside intervention.
With all the local resourcefulness potential, why are we only focused on Big Brother FEMA and inner city gang behavior?
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