Posted on 09/09/2005 10:50:28 AM PDT by jbwbubba
Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans By Shaun Waterman UPI Homeland and National Security Editor Sep. 9, 2005 at 10:48AM
Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the flooded and devastated city. An eyewitness account from two San Francisco paramedics posted on an internet site for Emergency Medical Services specialists says, "Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the city on foot." "We shut down the bridge," Arthur Lawson, chief of the City of Gretna Police Department, confirmed to United Press International, adding that his jurisdiction had been "a closed and secure location" since before the storm hit. "All our people had evacuated and we locked the city down," he said. The bridge in question -- the Crescent City Connection -- is the major artery heading west out of New Orleans across the Mississippi River. Lawson said that once the storm itself had passed Monday, police from Gretna City, Jefferson Parrish and the Louisiana State Crescent City Connection Police Department closed to foot traffic the three access points to the bridge closest to the West Bank of the river.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
It just keeps getting worse!
Wrong freaking link sorry!
http://washtimes.com/upi/20050908-112433-4907r.htm
Here's another first hand report. Note that LNG (Lousiana National Guard) troops, on site, in front of the refugees, ate and drank while at least one trapped person (an elderly woman) died of thirst:
http://www.strangepolice.com/content/item/110126.html
Manatee sheriff's detective witnessed horrors of New Orleans convention center
MICHAEL BARBER
Thu, Sep. 08, 2005
BRADENTON - Detective Bill Waldron went to New Orleans to testify in a murder trial. He wound up spending more than 50 hours trapped in a cauldron of chaos inside the New Orleans Convention Center.
Trained to help people in need, Waldron became an involuntary witness to the deaths of infants and the elderly who couldn't survive until assistance arrived.
A policeman unarmed and alone in a boiling sea of frustration, Waldron spent three days hiding the fact that he was a cop because he feared for his own personal safety.
Sitting shaken but safe in his west Bradenton home Wednesday afternoon, Waldron said he has heard wild rumors in the media about what happened at the convention center in the desperate days following the killer storm.
He said he knows what went on. He was an eyewitness.
A six-year veteran of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Waldron traveled to New Orleans on Sunday, Aug. 21, to testify in a murder trial he's been working on for more than a year. Waldron helped arrest the suspects in Bradenton after they were charged with murder in New Orleans.
Prosecutors thought the trial might last until Saturday, Aug. 27, so Waldron made flight reservations to return to Manatee County on Sunday, Aug. 28.
While he was in New Orleans that week, Waldron started keeping a distant eye on Katrina's development.
"I knew that there was a storm off the east coast of Florida and had kept up with that, calling back home and checking on things here," Waldron said.
The trial Waldron was called to testify in wrapped up Friday evening. By that time, Katrina was intensifying rapidly and moving toward New Orleans.
"Basically at that time, there was a lot of panic, a lot of chaos," Waldron said. "There were a lot of people leaving the city. From my hotel you could see the line of cars on (Interstate 10) backed up."
With the help of law enforcement officials in New Orleans, Waldron searched Saturday for a way to flee the city and return home.
"By that time, the airport was being evacuated, very few airlines were flying and the ones that were, were booked," Waldron said. "I tried to get a rental car, but the places that were open had no rental cars available and a lot of the other ones had started closing down and boarding up."
While Waldron could see streams of traffic leaving the city, he also noticed a lot of people who couldn't or wouldn't leave.
"There was a lot of people stranded due to not having vehicles to get out of the city, not having the financial means; and there was still a large amount of tourists," Waldron said. "Even Saturday night and Sunday morning they were walking around the French Quarter as if there was nothing going on."
Staying on the 10th floor of a Holiday Inn in the French Quarter, two blocks from world-famous Bourbon Street, Waldron filled his room's bathtub with water and hunkered down.
"I just figured I'd ride it out and be OK," Waldron said.
Sunday night and Monday
"I remember waking up around 2 a.m. and the winds were pretty significant then, but still not too bad," Waldron said. "I turned on the TV and saw the storm was still making its track toward New Orleans. The power went out around 3:30 a.m."
Waldron woke up about 8 a.m. Monday. By midafternoon, he said the heavy winds and rain had stopped and the sky began to clear. He left his hotel and bought the only food he could find - a can of Pringles - and some water.
It would be the last meal he would have for three days.
Waldron walked around to check out the damage. Some old buildings had collapsed and windows in some buildings were blown out. His hotel had no noticeable damage.
"My initial opinion was it wasn't too bad, that it might take a couple of days for the National Guard to get into the city and start food and water distribution points," Waldron said. "A lot of people were still walking around. Some of the bars opened up and were carrying on as if nothing happened. A lot of people were walking around talking to each other."
Waldron couldn't help but notice something else.
"There was literally no law enforcement presence," Waldron said.
Monday night, sleeping with his hotel window pried open, Waldron heard the first sounds of looming trouble.
"Throughout the night, I could hear breaking glass," Waldron said. "I would look out and see some law enforcement vehicles. That's when some of the looting had started."
Tuesday
Tuesday morning the management at his hotel told guests they had to leave because the water on nearby Canal Street was getting higher.
"From my hotel window I could see a little bit of water in the streets along the gutters where it was slowly rising," Waldron said.
Without power or contact with the world outside, Waldron did not know the levees protecting New Orleans had given way, flooding the city.
Told to go to the nearby convention center, Waldron gathered his two suitcases and started walking. As he walked he saw groups of police officers standing in the streets next to their cars.
"It seemed as if they were just as much in shock as everyone else there," Waldron said. "Talking to a couple of them, they couldn't get gas, so they were staying stationary because they didn't want to run out of gas."
When Waldron arrived at the convention center about 2 p.m. Tuesday, there were about 1,000 people milling about.
"We were being told by law enforcement that the convention center was not a shelter, that we needed to go to the Superdome," Waldron said. "We said, 'We can't get to the Superdome because the water is rising.' They said, 'Well, we don't know what to tell you.' "
Waldron said the people flocking to the convention center were confused and frustrated because they had been told there was food and water there.
"The National Guard was bringing people to the convention center and then they were being turned away," Waldron said. "When people heard that the convention center wasn't going to be open, people started walking away."
While he was waiting with other people outside the convention center, Waldron spotted stores with food and water inside being guarded by National Guardsmen.
"I saw the trucks come and I could see through some of the open doors that they had MRE's (Meal Ready to Eat) and water," Waldron said. "The National Guardsmen were walking past eating their food and drinking their water. People would walk up to them to try to ask questions and they would be ignored."
About 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, law enforcement officials opened the doors of the convention center to the crowd, which continued to swell with people who had been rescued from rooftops or homes by boats or helicopters.
Tales of mass destruction circulated, according to Waldron.
"There were rampant rumors that the water was rising and that it was going to flood the convention center," Waldron said. "Some people left during the night in an attempt to find higher ground."
Surrounded by thousands of stranded strangers, Waldron spent Tuesday night sitting in a folded chair inside the powerless, sweltering convention center.
Although food and water was scarce, what people inside the center wanted most, according to Waldron, was someone to tell them what was going on.
"There was no one of any authority," Waldron said. "No one was telling anyone what was going on and what could be expected."
Despite the spartan conditions, Waldron said the crowd at the convention center Tuesday was well-behaved.
"There were no problems," Waldron said. "People were helping each other out. People who did have some food and water were trying to get that to some of the elderly people. People were just in shock and exhausted."
Wednesday
People continued to pour into the convention center and the surrounding area Tuesday night and into Wednesday. As many as 25,000 evacuees eventually found their way to the site, according to reports from The Associated Press.
Tension inside the convention center mounted as stories of escalating violence throughout the city swept through the crowd. People were saying police officers were being shot and killed and were in turn shooting and killing civilians.
"Wednesday morning is when the looting really got out of control," Waldron said. "There was a Wal-Mart nearby and people were going to the Wal-Mart and bringing back food, but it was mostly just junk, potato chips and water. Then the alcohol started flowing in."
With circumstances deteriorating and anger with police and other absent authorities growing, Waldron decided to keep his identity as a cop to himself.
"I definitely wasn't going to announce to anyone that I was a law enforcement officer," Waldron said. "When people would ask what I was doing there, I just said I was a tourist that came to visit friends and got trapped."
Waldron said a lot of people at the convention center still pegged him as a police officer.
"A lot of people would ask, 'Are you a cop?' " Waldron said.
Waldron said a contingent of about 100 National Guardsmen were on hand but they offered little to no assistance to the restless throng.
"I think they were scared the people might lash out at them because communication had broken down and the rumors were getting more and more outrageous all the time," Waldron said.
Worn down by the withering heat and lack of water, the situation at the convention center became deadly by Wednesday afternoon.
"By this time people were getting very dehydrated," Waldron said. "I stayed busy trying to help people out. I'd see people collapse and would get assistance from other people to move them inside. We'd try to beg water from other people to get these people water. It just wasn't enough. At that point is when people I was trying to help began dying."
Although 12 buses arrived late Wednesday afternoon to take some of the elderly and sick to safety, it was too late for others. Waldron said he saw at least 10 people die at the convention center.
One was an elderly woman who apparently died of dehydration.
"She just kept saying over and over again, 'Jesus' and 'Angels,' " Waldron said. "We tried to cool her off with dirty water. We went to the National Guard to get something cold, and we didn't get anything. Eventually she just stopped breathing and that was it. I was very frustrated."
Waldron said he also saw two deceased infants.
"The babies were in the bathroom laying on sink counters just wrapped up in paper towels," Waldron said.
All the while the crowd grew more restless. While people heard reports on transistor radios of assistance at the nearby Superdome, no mention was made of the mass of people waiting at the convention center.
Although there were media reports of murders and other crimes at the convention center, Waldron insists he saw nothing like that occur.
However, at some point Wednesday night, Waldron said, police officers came by the center. When they were accosted by the angry and frustrated crowd, they fired guns in the air, causing the crowd to stampede back into the center.
"People got hurt in that," Waldron said. "I was more afraid of being accidently shot by police or National Guard than I was with anybody I was in the convention center with."
Thursday
Thursday morning the national media began to show up, according to Waldron. He said he spoke to a reporter who told him that the media had been unaware of the crowd at the convention center.
Using a pay phone inside the convention center, Waldron had periodically been able to reach his son, Nicholas, and mother, Judy Heston, with whom he lives in Bradenton. He had kept them abreast of his situation.
At the same time, he had established contact with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and was aware that they were working to rescue him.
"He was up there on sheriff's office business so we felt obligated to get him out," sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow told The Herald on Wednesday. "We felt helpless back here because we had little communication with him."
The sheriff's office dispatched some deputies to Louisiana to try and bring Waldron home. In addition, the sheriff's office was working with the Louisiana state police and other law enforcement agencies to get him out.
As the situation grew more desperate and reports of the conditions at the convention center began to be broadcast around the country, a team of game wardens from Texas and Louisiana headed to the convention center to rescue Waldron.
"I knew something was being put in place," Waldron said. "I knew at some point someone would be coming for me."
Rescuing Waldron was a precarious task from a law enforcement perspective, according to Bristow.
"It was a difficult situation to go in there and get one person," Bristow said. "We didn't want people to get upset that we were taking him out of that place, but we had sent him there and we felt we had to do anything we could to get him out."
After searching the crowd for close to 30 minutes, the game wardens found Waldron.
"They handcuffed me to make it look like I was being arrested," Waldron said. "The reason for doing that was because by that time tensions were pretty high. A lot of people were confronting me, asking me if I was a police officer. For my safety and their safety, they had to make it look like they were arresting me."
Waldron was taken to Gonzalez, La., where he took his first shower in almost a week. It was there that he was reunited with fellow Manatee County sheriff's deputies sent to bring him home.
The deputies drove all day and night and delivered Waldron to his Bradenton home at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
"I was relieved," said Nicholas, Waldron's 16-year-old son. "It was an exciting moment when he finally made it home."
For the time being Waldron is resting and recuperating. Bristow said they'll let him decide when he's ready to return to work.
Although he still wakes up with dreams that he's still in the convention center, Waldron said he's glad to be back in Bradenton.
"It's good to be home," he said.
Waldron hopes he can use his experience to help law enforcement agencies handle similar situations better. As a member of the local Emergency Services Response Team he hopes he can work to improve responses to crisis situations.
The most important lessons, Waldron said, are keeping people apprised of what's going on and providing some sense of organization to calm fears and curb chaos.
"I know I'm a lot stronger than I ever thought I was," Waldron said. "I hope I can use what I learned to help other people, because there's going to be more hurricanes."
"I knew at some point someone would be coming for me."
What I want to know is whether reports are correct that citizens trying to walk out of N.O. going the other way - not across GNO bridge toward Gretna - but on I-10 towards Metairie were prevented from leaving that way. I saw video of some who made it out that and they had to swim the section of I-10 under water.
I thought I heard something similar when Sheppard Smith was broadcasting last week. He was on one the freeway ramps pointing to the road that led out of the city saying some people weren't even being allowed to walk out.
I wouldn't believe this story just yet
The original was posted on free republic.
It was written by two socialist activists who have a lot of interesting stories to tell, to say the least.
The story was short on details and long on implausible entries - like their government issued "c-rations" being confiscated at the airport because they set off metal detectors.
Somebody else probably has a link to it.
Not really.
Here is why. Gretna and the surronding cites had already been putting up with looting and several fires. You have one of the major housing projects (fisher housing) on their side of the bridge. Even though it has been reduced in size, many of the violent crimes come out of that area.
They were able to prevent others from coming over on foot who may/may not wanted to loot.
The bridge is no easy place to walk across either.
You had no buses on that side to take them any place.
End the end, I don't blame them.
Why the hell is the press buying this BS story without any sort of independent verification. The story is so full of distortions and redflags that reading it I am under the impression that I have entered Socialist dreamland.
Enough other posters have pointed out the serious doubts raised by the paramedics account that no one should regard the piece as true.
Consider the source and note how the two themes beloved of all Socialists are present throughout the work.
" Workers of the World Unite to Throw of Your Chains of Oppression and Join Us in Overcoming The Vast Injustice of the Corrupt Ruler Class" and " We Never Met A Police Officer Or Other Gov't Lackey Who Was Not Conditioned To Deprive The People Of Their Most Basic Rights And Needs. While At The Same Time Propping Up The Racist Regime Of the Rightwing Warmongering Haliburon Whores".
How sweet - old ladies dying and the brother officer go the extra mile to save a "brother". Now he can help disarm the rest of the law abiding citizens.
Sheeeeeesh.
There's more than one side to this story:
Those on foot were looters or were suspected of being looters, and Westbank police simply didn't have the manpower to keep an eye on all of them.
Remember, most of the Westbank residents had left their homes, which were now ripe for the picking.
I think my mother-inlaw, whose home is in Algiers, approves of this police action.
It's obviously Bush's, Brown's, Cheney's and FEMA's fault. ...oh, and Karl Rove too.
Amazing story
Incredibly sad
They did not allow foot traffic. The buses did get through as you well know.
BTTT
Sorry. These people were desperate for leadership. This guy was a cop. He abdicated his responsibility as a leader to protect his safety. I can understand that. But he could have exercised his leadership without letting on that he was a cop. Those people needed someone, and he became a sheep and melded in.
Granted, not all police are suited to leadership. At least some portion of them are just plain bureaucrats and couldn't lead a dead bug. But this guy was part of the problem, not the solution.
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