Posted on 09/05/2005 9:07:51 AM PDT by linkinpunk
JENNY SACHS
Jenny Sachs, of Sheffield, told how soldiers had to smuggle her out of the Superdome in secret.
She said they had told her the lights would go out before the rescue, and warned her not to use a torch for fear of attack.
She was one of about 30 Britons who, realising they could not escape the city, fled to the stadium for shelter.
The military got us out, which we were all thankful for
"It has hit me more now I am at home, when you can have clean water, how bad it was," she said.
She said people had been raped and that others were beaten up.
"One of the soldiers did get shot and he was brought in," she said.
"A guy was brought in who had seven stab wounds and was covered in blood."
The military told all non-US citizens to stay together for safety, Ms Sachs added.
They later told them they would be secretly smuggled out in groups of 10 under cover of darkness as it had become too dangerous for them to remain in the stadium, she told BBC News.
"When we were leaving, people were going 'Where are you going?' and giving us looks.
"But the military got us out, which we were all thankful for."
I was telling people, 'Do not worry. She will be OK. She is in the best resourced, best organised country in the world. They will look after her'
Ms Sachs' American father, Bruce, said "the extent all this fell apart so quickly" had left him "totally shocked and very embarrassed" to be a US citizen.
"At the point where the hurricane started, I was telling people, 'Do not worry. She will be OK. She is in the best resourced, best organised country in the world. They will look after her'."
GED, SANDRA AND RONAN SCOTT
After looters had broken into New Orleans' Ramada Hotel, bus driver Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool - stranded with his wife Sandra, 37, and their seven-year-old son, Ronan - had waded waist-deep through the filthy water to barricade the hotel's doors, he told BBC News.
"It was like wading through an open sewer.
"It reeked to high heaven and made you want to vomit.
"Outside I could see bodies floating in the water."
Mr Scott told BBC News he had ripped wires attached to speakers from the walls of the flooded hotel bar and tied tables and chairs together as makeshift barricades.
Hotel guests had already managed to chase one group of looters from the building, he added.
They had then taken turns patrolling the hotel's corridors with a torch, Mr Scott told BBC News.
JAMIE TROUT
Jamie Trout, 22, of Sunderland, told BBC News the five "horrific" days he and his two female friends had spent in the Superdome, before being freed by the US National Guard, had been "like something out of Lord of the Flies".
"It was very dangerous - rioting, looting of vending machines, racial abuse, absolutely terrible sanitary conditions."
They had been "intimidated by large groups of men" and, Mr Trout added, he had feared he would be killed.
The group had heard a child had been raped and found in the toilets with a broken neck, Mr Trout told BBC News.
"That was a really hard time. It made us all feel sick.
"The girls were terrified to go to the toilet.
The group had called the British embassy in Washington from a mobile phone, Mr Trout added.
But embassy staff had told them to contact the British consulate in New Orleans
When they had pointed out it was "15ft under water", the embassy staff had simply repeated they should contact the consulate, Mr Trout told BBC News.
"That was obviously very difficult to take."
Do you have any confirmed estimates of the number of armed gangs? Because I think the military are now going to go in and kill a whole bunch of not-outstandingly-guilty citizens.
How many more or less innocent people have to die to make your leader look decisive? There is no reason to treat this situation as security emergency. It's a basic humanitarian emergency, the only reason it's a security situation is that that's all that the people at Homeland Security understand.
Meanwhile your massive miltary and admirable civilian volunteers are refused access by FEMA.What's going on?
FEMA were outstandingly competent when they had a cabinet seat. What happened to them? Why is it in your interest to let that happen? What are the unqualified political stooges up to. Are they refusing access to hide their own idiocy?
For me, and for many britons, conservatism has room for compassion and human values. We fought the Nazi menace, we aren't going to adopt Nazi attitudes to race and privilege.
I am profoundly disillusioned with your perverted idea of conservatism. I think we fought a world war to kill it.
And goodbye to you as well!
It's been swell, I enjoyed your posts and all.
Best of luck and write if you find work.
Hehehehe Mr Presssident, can I start torturing the, hehheehe, looters now?
Sure Don, but make sure they're on welfare if you're gonna get real freaky.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/cartoons/2005/09/04/rwsn.jpg
Why would any tourist want to visit such a filthy place full of depraved people? It's an embarrassment to the USA.
Notice what's missing in the story. The story gives the impression that the Brits were the targets of antagonism because they were non-US-citizens, rather than because they were white.
When the alternative is possible death by drowning, who the $!$! CARES what a neighboring city would want?
A rational person would have gotten people on the buses heading east and west out of Katrina's path, and worried later where to put people. A few hours fast driving and you are out of the edge of the storm, and can figure out at leisure where to shelter
No worse than soccer hooligans.
Get lost.
Your post shows you for the sleeper troll you are.
Your "analysis" is that if a 10-yo. Grow up, learn economics and someday you can speak amongst grown ups.
For the time being, have your mommy mash your tater tots.
I'm in Ireland - so the whole idea of a hurricane, no matter what scale - is a bit alien to me. We have a moderate climate, so the worst weather bashing we get is some small localised flooding etc.
However, when I heard on the news a week ago that the Mayor had ordered a 'mandatory evacuation order'...I was kinda stunned by that. I though 'Wow - MANDATORY! That's get up and go now!'.
Then I realised that a lot of people were already on the first track out of town, before this 'mandatory' evacuation was demanded. So most people had already figured out the problem before Katrina got near the coast
Why weren't every possible transportation means, within the remit of the city employed THEN? Why weren't buses sent to collection points then? And why weren't the most vulnerable - the sick and elderly - moved a couple of days previously when the threat was iminent?
Just strikes me of too little, too late. And much blame being bandied about without any real answers.
Because the Mayor of NO is a race-baiting do-nothing. When you build your house on the color of your skin, actually doing something is pretty much out of the question.
Just strikes me of too little, too late. And much blame being bandied about without any real answers.
You are buying into the Lefty millieu. "Disasters" have always been primarily local issues -- until this one.
This is the first time in recorded history that the President of the USA was blamed for the event and attacked for the perceived "slow response."
Riots in Los Angeles? No Federal response required. Hurricane Andrew? Federal response in a few weeks is OK. Even 9/11 was initially responded to locally.
The idea that GWB should have somehow put on the Superman suit is idiotic to the extreme.
Yes, it is true in Montgomery as well.
I can't understand why the State didn't move immediately on the thread - mobilise available vehicles etc. When citizens themselves were already reacting to what was an iminent crisis.
It just smacks of a whole lot of 'denial', until the monster was standing on the threshold.
The left wingers running the main stream media are out to manufacture a "Jonah." They play on the weakness and emotions of the uninformed with an eye to partisan advantage. They are going to continue to throw trash at any Republican President whatsoever - and hope that something sticks. Many citizens seem to have forgotten their basic civics lessons.
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