You're on your own, Britain's victims told (E Tu Brute?)

The Guardian Unlimited ^ | 9/4/05 | Mark Townsend

[Embraer2004]

You're on your own, Britain's victims told

Mark Townsend Sunday September 4, 2005 The Observer

British families trapped in New Orleans last night claimed that US authorities had refused to evacuate them as Hurricane Katrina approached the city. Although assistance was offered to US residents, British nationals were told they would have to fend for themselves. According to those who remain stranded in the stricken city, police had visited hotels and guest houses on the eve of the hurricane offering to evacuate Americans, but not Britons.

The order meant UK holidaymakers without cars were left helpless in the face of the hurricane. Some have been trapped in hotels and guest houses since the hurricane struck at 7am local time last Monday.

One family from Liverpool, trapped in a flooded section of the city, told relatives yesterday of their bewilderment when they realised US citizens would be offered preferential treatment.

Gerrard Scott, 35, spoke to his brother Peter from the Ramada Hotel in New Orleans where he has been stranded without assistance with wife, Sandra, 38, and seven-year-old son Ronan for the past six days. 'Those that didn't fit their criteria were told to help themselves. The police said they were evacuating Americans, and took away the majority.

'The British who were left all thought the police would come back, but nobody has. They have just been left,' said Peter Scott last night. Among the 30 or so people still inside the Ramada Hotel is a woman recovering from breast cancer who had been confined to a hotel room by herself because of fears over her immune system.

Last night Peter Scott described how the family survived by locking themselves inside a tiny windowless bathroom on the fifth floor of the Ramada. 'They were lucky that it was a substantial hotel and that they were quite high up,' said Scott.

Other Britons are, apparently, stranded in the hotel. However, contact with the outside world remains haphazard.

There is a payphone in the hotel lobby, but US operators have been refusing to accept collect calls from stranded Britons.

'Some of them are just hanging up even after they have explained they are trapped in New Orleans. It's like - what emergency?' said Scott. He added that conditions in the lobby were described as atrocious, with sewage up to knee level last night.

Most of those inside have not dared to venture downstairs for fear looters will spot them and ransack the hotel.

Last night victims trapped inside the Ramada were making plans to escape after food and water supplies neared exhaustion. Scott explained how they earlier ransacked the hotel kitchens for food, while water was found in its storage tank.

For the Scott family, the arrival of Katrina was particularly cruel. The trip to Louisiana was a family treat after years of economising to enable Sandra to attend the University of Liverpool to study modern languages.

Throughout the week, Gerrard and Sandra had kept their son's spirits up by convincing Ronan that their predicament was in fact an adventure. His father had, in turn, kept himself upbeat by asking his brother how England were performing in the cricket.

'Overall the mood among those trapped is good,' said Scott. 'It's a real league of nations, but they have all bonded.'

[Embraer2004]

This is all we needed!! Now the Liberal Britons have joined the fray and accused our rescuers of preferential treatment.

[atomicpossum]

Guardian. Baron Munchausen-style journalism.

[BenLurkin]

"US authorities" = the mayor of NO and the NOPD.

[FinallyBackInNH]

Yeah, I saw the National Guard stopping to check passports before they plucked people away in helicopters... Right after they checked whether or not they had paid their Republican party dues this year. Otherwise they were left to wait for the school buses...

[mc6809e]

It's likely the LOCAL authorities took this view.

Of course, all of American will be blamed.

[Arkie2]

And if the accusation is accurate?

[stopem]

I was surprised Tony Blair hasn't made any comments yet.

[jocon307]

I'm sorry, I find this very hard to believe.

[HitmanLV]

I don't think you will see Tony Blair sing this tune.

[stopem]

I meant making any comments in support of President Bush.

[aft_lizard]

The European Press has shown an even more ignorant view than our own MSM of Americas govt and how it works during a natural disaster.

[thucydides]

Guardian Alert! This is the farthest left of the British left newspapers. It recently had to fire one of its reporters who was revealed to have terroist connections.

[HitmanLV]

Oh, ok.

[Logical me]

So? It wasn't the Feds that did this if true. Ask the Mayor and his local police that were in charge. If the Brits are not satisfied then ask the Governor. I'm sure those local CRATS have all the answers. And just for a starter how many local citizens were ignoring the warning. Much of the blame has to be on the citizens themselves, who unfortunately ignored the severe warning that they had 5 days before, and especially for the last 2 days before they got hit. Just look at the picture of hundreds of school buses just sitting on the lot. Transportation? They had it, just the Mayor and his staff was just short of brains.

[Travis McGee]

I hope that sooner or later the MSM discovers that New Orleans did have a written emergency plan to cover the evacuation of the poor, but that the idiot mayor of New Orleans ignored it, and allowed the evacuation buses to be ruined by the flood, forgotten.

The city leaders had at least two full days to use these hundreds of buses to evac the poor, exactly as their own emergency management plan called for.

Here's the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

[mtbopfuyn]

Hogwash!

[manwiththehands]

This is a sick, cynical joke from the Huffington Post, right? Are we supposed to believe this?

[Smarti Pants]

Considering some Briton students, who were at the Superdome, were brought here to Houston - I find this story very unlikely.

More probable is the fact that possibly rumor led them to believe these things, and being holed up the way they were - how would they know anything anyhow?

Finally - with no power, no phone systems in the area operating in all of NO - how is it that a lobby payphone works for them to call an operator?

STUPID ain't tatooed on this forehead!

[IronJack]

Are we supposed to believe that the rescuers are checking passports? Looking askance at anyone with a "funny" accent? C'mon! How ridiculous are some of these charges going to get??

[FreedomNeocon]

Well obviously these must be poor black british democrats that are being murdered by Karl Rove.