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Briton tells of Katrina nightmare
BBC ^ | 9-10-2005 | Helen Neill

Posted on 09/11/2005 11:01:03 AM PDT by Main Street

Briton tells of Katrina nightmare

By Helen Neill

BBC Radio One

Stuart Bird's summer-of-a-lifetime trip turned into a nightmare when Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans.

When the eighteen-year-old and his friends got the order to evacuate the city, like many tourists, they found they had no way of getting out.

Their hotel manager initially persuaded the boys to ignore advice to go to the city's now notorious Superdome.

The pictures Stuart, 18, from Rugby, took show the devastation of the hurricane, and rising flood waters, taken from his room.

Then, running out of food and water by the middle of the week, Stuart and his friends gladly accepted the US army's offer to take them to the Superdome by boat.

They hadn't heard any of the terrifying stories from other "internationals" trapped there.

People were just shouting at us, we were basically getting racially abused all the time

Stuart Bird

Stuart describes the scene as they arrived there as "jaw dropping, it was hell, like nothing you could ever imagine".

He told me that there were "tens of thousands of people" queuing outside for buses. He joined them for what would turn out to be the most frightening 13 hours of his life.

Unable to sit down, move, eat or drink, he says "people were just shouting at us, we were basically getting racially abused all the time".

A man standing next to him threatened to get a "gun out and shoot all the white people".

He saw a woman dragged out of the crowd, apparently dead; "they didn't even bother to lift her off the ground".

Proud to be British

Contrary to reports from other Britons caught in the eye of Katrina, Stuart says that the help he received from consular officials when they eventually reached Houston, Texas, made him "proud to be British".

They organised a flight straight home, and he has worked out that by the time he landed at Heathrow, he hadn't slept for 72 hours.

His mum, dad and sister were there to meet him in what he describes as "the biggest relief ever" (although when I met him at his home near Rugby, he was most pleased to be back with the two family cats).

Stuart knows that he is lucky to have a home and family to return to. He's decided to put off going to university for a year so that he can spend some more time with them.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: doublestandard; hurricanebritons; katrina; neworleans; neworleansflood; urbanbarbarians
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1 posted on 09/11/2005 11:01:03 AM PDT by Main Street
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To: Main Street

Pretty shameful behavior.


2 posted on 09/11/2005 11:03:00 AM PDT by Owl558 (Support the Troops)
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To: Main Street

Our New Orleans sisters and brothers make me sooooo pround.*sigh*


3 posted on 09/11/2005 11:03:47 AM PDT by sheana
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To: sheana

haha pround=proud


4 posted on 09/11/2005 11:04:16 AM PDT by sheana
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To: Main Street
"People were just shouting at us, we were basically getting racially abused all the time"

Hmmm. The national media in America never reported any of this racism that was to be found in New Orleans.

5 posted on 09/11/2005 11:04:26 AM PDT by weegee (The lesson from New Orleans? Smart Growth kills. You can't evacuate dense populations easily.)
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The only racism we heard of was towards black people.


6 posted on 09/11/2005 11:08:50 AM PDT by micho
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To: micho
The only racism we heard of was towards black people.

That's because, in the worldview of liberals, only whites can ever be racists--and they see that as true by definition (in other words, they aren't denying that Blacks may feel hate in their hearts towards Whites, they simply do not consider such feelings to be a manifestation of racism, based on their definition of the term.)

7 posted on 09/11/2005 11:19:51 AM PDT by sourcery ("Compelling State Interest" is the refuge of judicial activist traitors against the Constitution)
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To: Main Street
A man standing next to him threatened to get a "gun out and shoot all the white people".

I wonder what excuse Celine Dion would have for this? Perhaps the man was justified, in that he'd never had the opportunity to shoot white people earlier in his life, and was bitter about it.

8 posted on 09/11/2005 11:25:37 AM PDT by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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To: Main Street
Unable to sit down, move, eat or drink, he says "people were just shouting at us, we were basically getting racially abused all the time". A man standing next to him threatened to get a "gun out and shoot all the white people".

This sounds as if there were quite a few more than a miniority of hateful black people there. The more educated blacks left town. To me it seems that our govt's coddling and feeding those who won't work has only made their outlook worse on life and made them resent whites instead of being thankful.

9 posted on 09/11/2005 11:30:14 AM PDT by millefleur (No KING but Jesus !)
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To: weegee

Since this catastrophic disaster hit New Orleans the liberal media has inundated us with one baseless accusation and story after another of (white) racism against the black victims. They even are saying that our president 'Hates black people." Then I saw this story of real and blatant open racism occurring from an eye witness account that for some reason the liberal media has not reported. The liberal double standards are there for a reason, I suppose. After all the Democratic Party wouldn't exist without an agenda based on double standards.


10 posted on 09/11/2005 11:38:14 AM PDT by Main Street (Stuck in traffic)
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To: Main Street

Y'all come back!


11 posted on 09/11/2005 11:38:56 AM PDT by claudiustg (Vote for one Democrat, vote for them all...)
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To: Main Street

Kudos to this young man for his fortitude and bravery.


12 posted on 09/11/2005 11:40:02 AM PDT by Ciexyz (Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
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To: sourcery
Agreed. But if "they aren't denying that Blacks may feel hate in their hearts towards Whites," then why aren't there any U.S. liberal media reports of these eyewitnesses accounts of some "Blacks hate towards Whites"?
13 posted on 09/11/2005 11:47:14 AM PDT by Main Street (Stuck in traffic)
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To: Main Street

When I saw the rabble that was being herded in to the Superdome I knew it was going to be a scary place for a white person. Kind of like telling a white person they would have to spend the night in East St. Louis.


14 posted on 09/11/2005 11:48:11 AM PDT by Mulch (tm)
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To: Main Street

Can you imagine the outcry if white folks had been shouting this kind of racial abuse at black people?


15 posted on 09/11/2005 11:50:15 AM PDT by Truthsayer20
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To: Main Street

Oh, and why hasn't any of this been reported in the US media?


16 posted on 09/11/2005 11:51:01 AM PDT by Truthsayer20
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To: Owl558
Pretty shameful behavior.

I think it reflects the real racism in America.

17 posted on 09/11/2005 11:55:57 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
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To: Main Street

Im sure that Jesse Jackson will address this racism towards white people soon.


18 posted on 09/11/2005 11:56:15 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: sourcery
The simple truth of the matter is that there is racism on both sides. Sad, but true. They're still fighting the war between the states (not aka: "Civil War") here in the South.

Never before have I ever been so incredibly aware of the color of my skin. Never.
19 posted on 09/11/2005 12:02:55 PM PDT by Smarti Pants (~This American Patriot will never forget !!!~)
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To: Smarti Pants
The simple truth of the matter is that there is racism on both sides.

That's only true if one defines "racism" the way most normal people would. Liberals are not normal people.

20 posted on 09/11/2005 12:06:19 PM PDT by sourcery ("Compelling State Interest" is the refuge of judicial activist traitors against the Constitution)
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