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."
Left wing! These people tell of being harrassed merely because they are white. No left wing paper would admit that happens.
Sounds like a monday night football game......
I have lived in it and experienced it first hand over and over.
There is much much greater hostility in the lower rungs of black urban culture towards basically anyone not in that particular culture than any other form of racism in this country
White supremacist or overt racism is almost a myth nowadays.
If anything whites are almost totally emasculated....especially outside the Deep South
we have to learn to scorn this culture for what it is the same as Jim Crow became demonized. this mindset harms us all but mostly those who have to live around it as we are now seeing...regardless of race
Good luck and God speed tonight.
I didn't know about Hurricane Hugo until I almost crashed my truck into a fallen tree..
Somehow I don't think if there were thousands of white people trapped in the dome, they wouldn't be shouting racial epithets at the couple dozen black people sticking together.
Methinks this is a myth that many white Southern males take pride in believing...
New extreme sport?
"That's why when I travel I always travel with my 2 best friends, Smith & Wesson."
LOL!
Good for you.
I've always been amazed by those who consider themselves so worldy saavy in their international travels, yet are oblivious to the obvious.
I understand. I have travelled worldwide and I guess I have always tried to keep up with what is going on wherever I am.....my control issues come out....hahaha!
How long until New Orleans changes its football team's name from the Saints, the the New Orlean's 'Looters'.
I'm with you, the entire essence of my belief system is that individuals are responsible for what they do or don't do.
May God always be your co pilot.
John
"The moral of the story?"
Stay home in British 'Mirror' land?
***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. ***
It sounds like these people are in need of "DIVIRSITY TRAINING",
more interested in drinking than what is going on around them,
at least they did try to protect themselves after society broke down.
I bet they will try to steer clear of natural disasters in the future.
I have found just the opposite from what you have experienced.
It is the lower rungs of the black hierarchy that are the most ANTI-BLACK.White people are not even in the picture for most of this group.These are the little thugs that act so very violently toward EACH OTHER.
The anti-WHITE sentiment exists to a much greater degree among the black professional and academic class who see their ideology as a way to grind their personal and ethnic axes in the name of"liberation"
Not saying you're experiences are not valid.Just saying they are quite different from mine.
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