The city had all of these busses at their disposal, and what they do with them?
Posted on 09/02/2005 12:58:04 AM PDT by BenLurkin
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - First the federal government took the buses they had hired to evacuate them. Then their hotels turned them out onto the desolate streets.
They trudged for blocks to walk over a bridge, but officers wouldn't let them cross - and fired a few warning shots over their heads to convince them.
And the night was coming down.
Despairing, dozens of trapped tourists huddled on a downtown street corner and waited for dark.
"I grew up in an upper-middle class family. Street life is foreign to me," said Larry Mitzel, 53, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. "I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive."
The fate of tourists in dozens of hotels here was caught up in the days of chaos and confusion that came after Hurricane Katrina's 145 mph winds.
Many smaller hotels shut down. The largest housed hundreds and hundreds of guests and took in refugees from the storm. How many remained Thursday was unclear.
Tourists and hotel managers alike condemned government officials for ignoring them.
"The tourists are an afterthought here," said Bill Hedrick of Houston, who came to town on business and was trapped with his wife and elderly mother-in-law.
"We're appalled," said Jill Johnson, 53, of Saskatoon. "This city is built on tourism and we're their last priority."
Peter Ambros, general manager of the Astor Crowne Plaza in the French Quarter, said, "Guests who bring business to the hotels are treated 10 times worse than the people at the Superdome."
He helped arrange the hiring of 10 buses to evacuate 500 guests from his and a nearby hotel - at a cost of $25,000.
Then the Federal Emergency Management Agency commandeered the buses and police told the guests to go to the nearby convention center, where a crowd left without food, water or security was growing angry.
Instead, the tourists - dragging their rolling luggage through broken glass, smashed bricks and trash - tried to cross a huge bridge blocks away.
They were turned back when another group trying to cross began to threaten the officers, said Whit Herndon, 32, of Jonesboro, Ark.
As night approached, the tourists stuck close together on a corner of the downtown waterfront and within sight of a police gathering point.
Officers brought them food and water and promised buses would come for them. Most prepared to sleep, sheltered by a concrete overhang.
The tourists put on a game face and prepared to sleep.
Ann Robertson, a 50-year-old vocational counselor from Nashville, Tenn., looked on the bright side. They had food, there was safety in numbers - but then she looked at the sky.
"I don't know," she said, "I never slept on the street before."
Airlines shut down flights out, rental cars unavilable, no public transprotation out of the city.
It's like "Judgement Night" but, like, for real.
OK, why wouldn't the cops let the cross? I thought the idea was to evacuate the city?
The city had all of these busses at their disposal, and what they do with them?
It sure sounds to me like she is trying. They have actually tried to walk out.
A despicable sentiment that which you expressed, Ben. As guests in our house the Canadian and any other international vistors are by law and good custom both deserving a higher standard of care and rescue.
Tell us again how they were supposed to leave when the airports shut down, there were no rental cars to be had and the charter buses that the hotel manager hired were seized by the feds.
Well. They didn't leave. And when they brought their own means to leave (the busses), their means to leave were taken away.
I am having a hard time believing some of the things I am reading on this thread. Thanks Godness tourist are treated as valued guests in other parts of the world. Sad to see the usa sinking to such a low level. City planners should be thrown in jail, the lack of planning is criminal.
Thank you
Couple heads home from New Orleans, in a limo for 37-hundred dollars
Of course from other articles, he had some trouble finding a limo to rent. I guess the just should have walked and swam to Baton Rouge. They'll vacation in Europe next time.
What's shameful is that the thought of using those busses probably never entered into their minds.
If you read down to the bottom you will see where a large group of NO finest tried to cross at the same time and it was them the police were stopping. Looks like the tourists just came along at a bad time.
It's not hindsight. If terrorists can bring down the WTC they can breach a levee. City, State, and Federal officials claim to have been planning for nearly four years. It's inconceivable they didn't consider the possibility the city would be flooded. Perhaps without the weather and power grid problems on one hand, but on the other with a million plus population to deal without the opportunity to pre-evacuate. This was a failure, and unfortunately it will likely be politicized rather than corrected.
There was a series of events. Excusing their "ignoring" of the evacuation order, hotels were exmpted from it.
Then, once in the pickle, with the hurricane over, they hired busses to take them out of the pickle - and out of the pickle is where everybody should be headed. But their menas of egress was commandeered by authorities, and if I understand it, the commandeering was under federal authority.
Anyway, point being that it wasn't just their staying that put them in the predicament. Somebody in authority over-rode their initiative.
Thier self-initiative, hiring busses, was taken away from them. They didn't ask for priority, they just wanted to exercise their initiative to get out.
Where did you see info regarding doctors who refused to go back to the Superdome? not doubting you- I'm curious and want to see/read it.
"Don't blame me if you are stupid enough NOT TO EVACUATE before a Category 4 Hurricane destroys everything in a city that is on a coast but BELOW SEA LEVEL!!
"I'm calling for back-up!"
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