Posted on 09/03/2005 5:57:38 PM PDT by Lorianne
People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger-happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror.
Police and National Guard troops on Saturday closed down the two centers -- the Superdome arena and the city's convention center -- but then penned in the storm victims outside in sweltering heat to keep them from trying to walk out of the city.
Military helicopters and buses staged a massive evacuation to take away thousands of people who waited in orderly lines in stifling heat outside the flooded convention center.
The refugees, who were waiting to be taken to sports stadiums and other huge shelters across Texas and northern Louisiana, described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.
Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.
In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said.
Police here refused to discuss or confirm either incident. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col Pete Schneider said "I have not heard any information of a weapon being discharged."
"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead."
Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.
"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.
The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock.
A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here.
"There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats. They keep telling us the buses are coming but they never leave," she said through tears.
People here said there were now 22 bodies of adults and children stored inside the building, but troops guarding the building refused to confirm that and threatened to beat reporters seeking access to the makeshift morgue.
People trying to walk out are forced back at gunpoint - something troops said was for their own safety. "It's sad, but how far do you think they would get," one soldier said.
"They have us living here like animals," said Wvonnette Grace-Jordan, here with five children, the youngest only six weeks old. "We have only had two meals, we have no medicine and now there are thousands of people defecating in the streets. This is wrong. This is the United States of America."
One National Guard soldier who asked not to be named for fear of punishment from his commanding officer said of the lack of medical attention at the center, "They (the Bush administration) care more about Iraq and Afghanistan than here."
The Louisiana National Guard soldier said, "We are doing the best we can with the resources we have, but almost all of our guys are in Iraq."
Across town at the Superdome, where as many as 38,000 refugees camped out until Wednesday night when evacuation buses first came, the 4,000 still there were corralled outside, hoping to get on four waiting buses with seats for only 200.
The scene at the sports stadium was one of abject filth. Crammed into a small area after the building was shut to them last night, those remaining sat amid heaps of garbage, piled in places waist high. The stench of human waste pervaded the interior of the now vacant stadium.
One police officer told Reuters there were 100 people in a makeshift morgue at the Superdome, mostly people who died of heat exhaustion, and that six babies had been born there since last Saturday, when people arrived to take shelter.
At the arena, too, there was much talk of bedlam after dark.
"We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom," one National Guard soldier told Reuters. "Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."
Every anecdote in this story is second hand, at best, and some wildly implausible. I see no evidence that there is a single fact reported here. Neither do you if you read the article.
thanks for the ping.
I was at the Reunion Arena in Dallas tonight. We spoke to several people who were victims and also the police.
I can tell you first hand, Downtown Dallas has always been kind of scary, but now it is another world and it is going to get out of control.
Refugees can come and go as they please. So they are all downtown hanging out. The lights come on at 7am and go off at 11pm. It is already dirty around the building. By the way, I am including the Convention Center as well. The look on a lot of young people's faces are- who the(da) F are you.
So if my buddy in Houston had one experience, I may have another take on it.
The "victims" from NO and Biloxi we talked too told us they like Dallas and now want to stay here. Kind of scary.
Dallas Police and the DPS are/will be over worked. There is scores of cops on the street. One of the officers who shot from the hip told us he could tell us about all the fights that have broken out.
The Reunion and CC are no longer taking buses. They are sending them to Lt Rock, AR. That does not mean they are not accepting people just driving up. The officer also noted that many Dallas homeless have been coming in an jumping on the system.
I feel it will get ugly here soon.
I was just re-reading this article and noticed a couple things about it that seem odd. First, how did Steve Banka report seeing someone killed outside, but know the reason he ran was because "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street ". Just seems odd that he knows what goes on both inside and outside.
Wade Batiste says he saw a young man killed and knows his age. Just seems odd, he would know a strangers age. And why is this young man unnamed? "A member of that family, Africa Brumfield, 32, confirmed the incident but declined to be quoted about it, saying her family did not wish to discuss it. But she spoke of general conditions here." She didn't tell them his name? That wouldn't have been left out so no one could check out this story truthfulness would it?
In the reuters article Africa Brumfield is 32, Wade Batiste is 48, and Steve Banka is 28. Another person in the article is "Wvonnette Grace-Jordan, here with five children", her age is unknown.
In the LA Times, "Wade Batiste, 29, staying at the Astrodome with his wife and five children".
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-houston3sep03,0,5048892.story
The whole story is just odd. It reminds me of the women Saddam would have run from site to site telling stories of child being in every bombsite.
I couldn't find any other hits on these people names other then the reuters story.
Wade Batiste, 29, staying at the Astrodome with his wife and five children, opted not to wait for a government program. A construction worker in New Orleans, he left the Astrodome and applied for work at a McDonald's restaurant.
"I am not going to let my kids starve," Batiste said.
But in the Reuters article Mr. Batiste is relating a story he saw on Friday night:
Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.
"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said.
The young man's body lay in the street by the Convention Center's entrance on Saturday morning, covered in a black blanket, a stream of congealed blood staining the street around him. Nearby his family sat in shock.
Mr. Batiste got from NOLA to Houston and had applied for a job in this amount of time. Just me that thinks this is weird?
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