Posted on 09/09/2005 7:32:50 PM PDT by george76
When Lulu Ballet realized she had nothing left to lose in New Orleans, she went to the airport to catch a flight to Colorado.
Like thousands of other victims fleeing the hurricane disaster area, Ballet didn't have any identification with her, just the clothes on her back.
Normally, the Transportation Security Administration would not let anyone on a plane without identification because names have to be checked against a terrorist watch list.
...she and thousands of other evacuees got on board.
Since the hurricane struck, the TSA has suspended some of its security regulations...
"In this national emergency, we've had to make accommodations for the evacuees trying to get out, who through no fault of their own, do not have id's," said Harmon.
That means the TSA doesn't know if the passengers are terrorists. As a precaution, Harmon said Federal Air Marshals are on board every flight with evacuees.
Also, the evacuees are going through secondary screening. When the electricity went out for two days at the New Orleans Airport, the evacuees were screened with hand wands, according to Harmon. During the screenings, the TSA has confiscated more than 82 firearms, 400 knives and 250 other prohibited items...
When the evacuees arrived at Denver International Airport without identifications, Aurora Police began collecting names, social security numbers and did background checks.
Of the 873 hurricane survivors in Colorado, 57 have felony criminal records, including assaults, theft, sex offenses and murder...
(Excerpt) Read more at 9news.com ...
Every one of them coming to a shelter should be finger printed. I don't buy this no id stuff either. Who leaves their wallet or purse behind?
Oh my!
Gee what a suprise............
Are those the Heinz 57?
They did print them.
And colorado is okay with it as all have served their sentences and no warrants were out on them.
They will rue the day. Did they ever hear of recidivism.
Black refugees ask if Utah will really accept them
Sep 09 5:04 PM US/Eastern
By Adam Tanner
CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah (Reuters) - Asked whether he would relocate permanently to Utah after being brought here as a refugee from Hurricane Katrina, Larry Andrew rattled off a series of questions on Friday on the delicate issue of race.
"How do the adults really feel about us moving in?" he asked at Camp Williams, a military base 21 miles south of Salt Lake City housing about 400 refugees from last weeks disaster. "What if I find a Caucasian girl and decide to date her?
"Will I have to deal with whispering behind me and eyeballing me?" asked the 36-year-old black man.
For the mostly poor, black refugees evacuated from New Orleans, few places are as geographically remote and culturally alien as this corner of Utah, where 0.2 percent of the population in the nearest town is black.
Still, some refugees, especially younger adults, say they are ready to make a new start in the region even though they did not know they were coming until the doors shut on the airplane evacuating them from New Orleans.
"I'm planning a whole new life," said Phillip Johnson II, 23, who has already arranged an apartment in Salt Lake City. "It's an opportunity knocking for me out here."
He said even though the population of New Orleans was two-thirds black, his appearance with dreadlocks and a goatee still worked against him. "In New Orleans, being a young black man, you get harassed a lot, stereotyped a lot," he said.
One of the volunteers at the base, Newton Gborway, who moved to Utah from Liberia in West Africa five years ago, shared his first-hand impression of life in an economically prosperous state with a less than one percent black population.
"Don't be shocked and surprised if you meet someone who is mean to you or doesn't want to associate with you because you are black," he told Darisn Evans. "You don't worry about the negative stuff."
"Everything is going to be okay, but it is just a matter of time."
Evans said he would remain in Utah, and would like to work either as a handyman or as a highway patrolman.
His ex-wife Tanya Andrews, 44, said race played a part in their escape from flooded New Orleans, an adventure which she said included looting food, a television and a boat to get to higher land. She said rescuers picked them up only after a lighter-skinned black woman waved down a helicopter.
UTAH OPEN ARMS
So far the local community has welcomed the refugees with open arms, although they say they face an adjustment to life in Utah, stronghold of the socially conservative Mormon Church.
"Any time you go in where you are in the minority -- and I'm experienced in this -- it's going to be more difficult," said Wayne Mortimer, mayor of Bluffdale next to Camp Williams.
He cited his past missionary work in Canada when he was a relatively rare Mormon. Mortimer said his town of 6,500, a well-to-do bedroom community of Salt Lake City, had 20 low-income housing units available for the refugees.
"When you are an affluent community like we have, the greatest blessing we can have is to lift someone else," he said in an interview.
Larry Andrew's brother Adrian and sister Tanya, despite initial shock about being sent to Utah, say they will remain in Utah. Even Larry, despite his doubts, says the state is offering him a unique chance.
"According to what I see, it will be beneficial to me economically, even socially," he said. "But how would they adapt to me?"
Might not have been with them on the roof when they were rescued. That said, they must be fingerprinted and background-checked as you say.
Knock me over with a feather!
They told us here in Texas that most of them came from the church chior, and the rest were pending sainthood. We must have a stern discussion with the mayor and the governer. They promised no transvestites, queers, or undesireables. Maybe they had a severe social problem for 60 years or so before this? Must have been those wicked republicans.
This is a bit scary.
I agree that you have to be careful who comes into your home but if they served their time and have stayed out of trouble what more can society ask? I hate seeing people that made a mistake continously punished and kept down. That said, if someone is considered a danger to society they should never have been released to begin with.
ping
I agree with you!
I'm just completely shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!
well maybe for a youthful mistake.
But murder? Sexual assault? Sorry, that is forever in my book.
Will the send the jail bill to Blanko and Naggin?
These are refugees, not recidivists. Larn yor wurds. :-)
Hey, they could all be professors at CSU.
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