Posted on 09/04/2005 6:52:12 PM PDT by Lorianne
AUSTRALIAN survivors of Hurricane Katrina told last night of their dramatic escape from New Orleans and the unfolding civil disaster in city.
The group, joyful at fleeing the nightmare of the Louisiana city, lauded one of its members as a hero. Bud Hopes, of Brisbane, was praised for saving dozens of tourists as the supposed safe haven of the city's Superdome became a hellhole.
"I would have to say that Bud is solely responsible for our evacuation," Vanessa Cullington, 22, of Sydney, told the Sunday Herald Sun by mobile phone from a bus carrying 10 Australians to safety in Dallas, Texas.
"I dread to think what would have happened if we hadn't got out. It's so great to be free."
News of the group's escape came as reports said as many as 10,000 people might have been killed by the hurricane and its aftermath, and President George Bush ordered more troops and an increased aid effort for the stricken Gulf of Mexico states.
As the Australians left the Superdome, food and water were almost non-existent and the stiflingly hot arena was filled with 25,000 people and the stench of human waste. Gangs stalked the tourists and women were threatened with rape.
"Bud took control. He was calm and kept it together the whole time," Ms Cullington said.
Mr Hopes, 32, said: "That was the worst place in the universe. Ninety-eight per cent of the people around the world are good. In that place, 98 per cent of the people were bad.
"Everyone brought their drugs, they brought guns, they brought knives. Soldiers were shot.
"It was like a refugee camp within a prison.
"It was full on. It was the worst thing I have seen in my life. I have never been so frightened."
Realising that foreigners were a target, Mr Hopes and the other Aussies gathered tourists from Europe, South America and elsewhere into one part of the building.
"There were 65 of us, so we were able to look after each other -- especially the girls who were being grabbed and threatened." Mr Hopes said.
He said they had organised escorts for the women when they had gone for food or to the toilet, and rosters to keep guard while others slept.
"We sat through the night just watching each other, not knowing if we would be alive in the morning."
John McNeil, 20, of Brisbane, said the worst point had come after two days when soldiers had told them the power in the dome was failing and there was only 10 minutes worth of gas left.
"I looked at Bud and said, 'That will be the end of us'," Mr McNeil said.
"The gangs . . . knew where we were. If the lights had gone out we would have been in deep trouble. We prayed for a miracle and the lights stayed on."
Mr Hopes said the Australians owed their lives to a National Guard Staff Sgt Garland Ogden, who had broken the rules to get the tourists out of the dome, with 60 people being evacuated to a medical centre.
"We did some shifts at the hospital to help nurse the sick to say thank you. It was a real Aussie thing," he said.
As the bus carrying the Australians crossed the Texan border, spirits were high.
"We've had hotdogs and chips and everyone is laughing," Mr Hopes said.
Later, the bus arrived at Dallas Convention Centre, where the Australians were processed.
Family and friends gathered at the Brisbane home of Mr McNeil's parents, Peter and Mary, where they were joined by Mr Hopes's sister, Debbie Browne.
Mrs McNeil broke down when she saw images of her son leaving New Orleans.
"There have been times during this past week when we didn't know if we would see him again," she said.
Mr McNeil said he could see a change in his son.
"They've been traumatised," he said. "I think they've witnessed several atrocities."
The other Australians on the bus were Emma Hardwick, of Sydney; Simon Wood, of Wyalkatchem, WA; Michael Ryan, of Lithgow, NSW; Yasmin Bright, of Newcastle; Michelle and Lisa van Grinsven, of Sydney; and Elise Sims, Tea Tree Gully, Adelaide.
Meanwhile, three Australian couples were safe in Los Angeles, awaiting flights home after being rescued from New Orleans by a Channel 7 news crew.
Tim and Joanne Miller, of Rockhampton, Garry and Cynthia Jones, of Brisbane, and Jack and Gloria Slinger, of Perth, crammed into a four-wheel-drive vehicle with reporter Mike Amor and two colleagues for the early morning dash.
The crew had arranged to pick up two couples from the building where they were holed up and found the Slingers on the streets.
"They were very wary about about coming out of the building. It was a pretty frightening scene -- bodies, shootings, looters," Amor said.
A phone call in the middle of the night gave hope to relatives of Brisbane's Fiona Seidel and her sister-in-law, Katie Maclean.
Mrs Maclean's husband, Andrew, was contacted by a New Orleans police officer who said he had seen the pair get on a bus.
Well done. Keep up the good work there.
Excellent point - No way I would have gone in there, either.
One thing I know for fact is.. the Marxist Ideology -- the liberal belief set -- is heavily ANTI-POLICE. The racialists and liberals preach an anti-police position.
Thugs don't like police either, for obvious reasons.
Am I concerned? YES. Am I concerned about sudden "anti-police" activity coming from "liberal" circles, nationwide? Yes.
Out of Los Angeles, Sept 1: Flyer Calls for "Jihad" Against the LAPD".
Another poster in this thread wrote about how great it was in the San Francisco Bay Area during the quake -- how everyone helped each other. The lady was right. That's how it was.
However, whenever there appears to be "anti-police" activity anywhere else in the nation, it shows up as "anti-police activism" in the San Francisco Bay Area. Suddenly, things begin happening.
LA Riots? HA! Bay Area turned into a liberal political cesspool of "anti-police activism"; trying to block off the SF/Bay Bridge, etc.
I support the NOPD who are standing on duty. And so does the US Military.
I've actually only read reports of maybe a total of 5 "NOPD" doing the looting. Out of a force of maybe 1,500?
The bigger deal to me about why so many police appeared to have not shown up -- certainly they have concerns and emergencies too -- but -- what back-up had the NOLA officials provided the NOPD WITH? Not much, if any, that I can fathom.
Thugs and criminals loosed, and you are a cop with no back-up, no resources from your own bosses?
Thanks for listening to my concern, of today.
May well be the case ~ on the other hand, you are presuming that only gangsters were armed. This is Louisiana ~ not New York City.
Need to fisk that grammar.
That's good. You should move. After spending my time in the US Army Infantry, and then 38 years in the US Postal Service, my experience with "black" culture is a tad different than yours.
The Democrats did this. It is all their fault. Their names and faces can be placed into the chain of causality.
These writers aren't even bothering to come up with new stories.
The Leftist enclaves of America, Europe, et al. are afflicted with this DECADENCE--a disease, that, if left uncured, will devastate the world more catastrophically than the black plague devastated Europe--and vastly more catastrophically than the hurricaine devastated the Gulf Coast.
The plague merely devastated Europe; DECADENCE will DESTROY Europe--and the rest of the world as well.
Middle America is the last, great stronghold of health, optimism, energy, strength, ascendancy, and Western Civilization in the world today, and it is the world's best hope.
We must fight with everything we have against this DECADENCE--against the Left/Marxism/the Democrat Party and the fools, sociopaths, and intellectual and moral cripples who populate them.
If the Left should succeed, the entire world will rapidly become a hellhole that would make devastated New Orleans look like Disney World.
Good grief ~ I've read enough literature in my life to recognize some of the more interesting storylines when I see them.
This is where the Union Corse (Corsican Union) was born. That's the predecessor to the Italian and Sicilian Mafia that came along two centuries later.
That is HILLARIOUS!
I guess you haven't heard all the other accounts by people who were in the Dome about the rapes. You seem to be in denial and have an agenda. Sad.
Took a while for the "newsies" to catch onto that, but finally they did.
Now this doesn't mean that "things" didn't happen, but when I hear a trite story written by Joseph Conrad, or when it looks a tad too much like a plot from Superman, I start asking for PICTURES and dozens of eyewitnesses who have been interviewed by experienced investigators.
We don't have that yet. Doesn't mean I'm dismissing the stories, just questioning their etiology.
You want pictures of rapes?
And you want witnesses to step forward? And yet the story last night that you were making fun of was a story of 30+ people. Do you honestly think that they are lying?
It's nice you aren't questioning that rapes didn't happen. That's real big of you.
And these are the people we are importing into our cities. We must crack their heads if they get out of line. They should get the idea that we expect them to be more civilized than they were in NO.
the article didn't say "our women" were white, just like it didn't say the perps were black....hmmm....am I....are YOU implying something here? hmmmm
It's the Rap culture and BET TV that makes all these black kids wannabe criminals and thugs. Katrina gave them a chanch to live out their fantasies.
If 98% were bad, then 98% were bad. Whatever the race.
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