I do hope someone makes Oprah aware of this. She has spent the last two programs lambasting "the federal government that allows this to happen" and even had on the Rev. Jack$on for a short prayer of sorts.
(let it be known that watching Oprah was pure accident, I am normally quite sane :)
A night in the Superdome: 'This is the best I've eaten in a while'
05:23 PM CDT on Thursday, September 16, 2004 By MARY FOSTER Associated Press
They sat just yards from the high-tech football field. A shabby crowd in high-priced seats, huddled together, cold and miserable. Rather than a football team, they cheered the news they would get a hot meal, that blankets were on the way, that there was an area where they could smoke.
These are the last people anyone worried about. The poor, the homeless, the aged, the infirm. People with nowhere to go and no way to get there. Stranded and frightened, they finally found shelter in the Louisiana Superdome and rode out Hurricane Ivan in a joyless night, uncomfortable, but at least safe.
"This isn't the place I want to be, but it's the place I'm very grateful to be," said Leonard Cooper, a homeless man.
The Red Cross, which once set up shelters in New Orleans, will no longer do so for storms ranked higher than a Category 2. The organization ruled the city, which lies well below sea level, unsafe for bigger storms and said evacuation was the only sure was to survive such hurricanes.
In New Orleans that leaves a large population of poor, those who rely on public transportation, and the homeless stranded when hurricanes threaten. "I wanted to evacuate," joked Fred Wilson. "But my chauffeur was off today."
The city opened part of the Superdome for medical refugees Wednesday morning. It opened up for general refugees between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Dome officials kept the doors open until 6:30. But that time 1,100 people were in the 72,000-seat stadium.
They were confined to one end zone and the concourse behind it. Although they were told to bring food, drinks and blankets with them, only a few families did. The majority of the refugees were homeless and had nothing to bring.
Superdome general manager Doug Thornton laid down the ground rules early: be polite, put trash in the bins, keep the restrooms clean, smoke only in the designated area.
The sheriff's office sent over spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It was served with a slice of white bread. "This is the best I've eaten in a while," said Joe Maris, as he lined up for thirds.
Catholic Charities sent over a big supply of bottled water which was available in the concourse. There were also oatmeal bars, chips, orange juice, snack-size pudding and 8,000 packages of cheese crackers. Dome officials worried about the trash and decided to give each person a bag of food in the morning as they left rather than distribute it immediately.
The concourse was constant activity. People went in and out of the bathrooms, smokers headed in and out to smoke, children wandered around looking. A man with one shoe on walked up and down holding his enlarged stomach. An old man asked a National Guardsman if he could get a cane. "I lost mine and sometimes I fall over without one," he said. People smiled and talked. A woman helped the old woman next to her spread out a blanket. Another held a baby for the mother so she could eat.
At 9 p.m. Thornton got on his cell phone trying to get a doctor to come from the medical evacuation area to the general area. Two men were having seizures, suspected to be from drug withdrawal. Charmaine Wallace was worried about her 7-month-old baby, Charel. The baby had a 101 fever, was coughing and had a rash on her cheeks.
An hour later mother and baby were loaded into an ambulance and taken to Charity Hospital, just blocks away. The two men left in other ambulances.
Arthur Feldman left on his own. He didn't like the food and the Superdome was too cold. The temperature was 65 degrees. The building was being cooled for the Saints game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. "If we warm it up, we won't have enough time to cool it back down before the game," said Thornton, who was besieged by shivering refugees with questions about the promised blankets.
Thornton and Gen. Ralph Lupin began phoning the National Guard headquarters and the Red Cross headquarters, trying to secure blankets.
At 9:30 a representative of the Office of Emergency Preparedness agreed to deliver them if someone would take responsibility for making sure they were returned. The general and Thornton agree to pay for any not turned back in. The only other time the Superdome was used as a shelter, in 1998, people raided the luxury suites before leaving, taking furniture and televisions. This time 300 National Guardsmen were on patrol and there were no problems. At 11 p.m. the blankets arrived. By 11:15 people began finding places to sleep.
The lights were dim in the seating area. People there wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to get comfortable. Because the armrests don't move, people had to sit in one seat and drape their legs over the armrest into another. Others lay on the floor in front of the seats.
"I should have stayed home," said LaShone Johnson. "This is the first time I ever came to a shelter and I'll never do it again. A lot of these people haven't bathed in a while. It doesn't smell too good in here."
In the concourse the lights were bright. National guardsmen patrolled as people lay on the brick floor along the wall outside the restrooms. John Davis wrapped up behind the beer counter. "At least no one will step on me here," he said. Just down the isle, a man lay talking to himself in a loud voice as he has been all evening.
By midnight people had settled down. It was not quiet. Babies cried, mothers yelled at youngsters, sleepers moaned and shouted as dreams or discomfort prompted, a constant parade of people climbed up and down the steps going to the bathrooms.
The hours crept by until the National Guard started bringing in the breakfast bags and people began getting up, looking tired and uncomfortable. Blankets were turned in. Many of the homeless hurried off to the agency that hires temporary workers each morning. Families gathered their belongings and headed to the street, waiting for the buses to take them back to their neighborhoods. They were greeted by bright sunshine and gentle breezes, Ivan had bypassed the city.
"I'm glad we could come," said D'Artagnan Wilson, who came with his wife, mother-in-law and five children. "We wanted to evacuate, but we both had to work right up until yesterday. And my wife didn't think our apartment would be safe in a big storm. It was uncomfortable, but at least it was safe."