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."
Maybe their Louis Vuitton luggage offended them.
Amen!
It's called coordination and, to some extent, prioritization (and possibly protection as well).
FEMA is charged with the evacuation of the city. Some people may have more of an immediate need to get out than others (hospital patients for example). Lastly, when the "mob" at the Superdome startes seeing that "the wealthy" are being given "priority" (a subjective perception!!) the situation could spiral even further out of control!!
Sorry, but in this situation, the old saying - all are equal - MUST apply.
What means are those? Flights were canceled, rental agencies ran out of cars. Most tourists could get out, and most did, but I don't doubt that some were legitimately stranded.
BTW ... this article throws Rev Al's rant on Oberman's show right out the window
While I agree that a lot of the tourists are partly to blame for their situation, many are there through no fault of their own. If you remember, a lot of tourists were trapped after the evacuation had been ordered because the airlines had stopped running, and there were no rental cars available. If it was ME, however, I'd have been long gone out of Dodge before that happened.
Excuse me?? A tourist, once having heard what was coming, SHOULD HAVE left even BEFORE the evac order - once THAT was issued, there is absolutely no excuse - they had money and means and should have used it. Now they are treated just as everyone else is being treated - rightly so.
Well, since you never bothered to answer, let me tell you the facts: FEMA didn't "know" about the Convention Center because 1) it wasn't a designated shelter and 2) nobody in NO bothered to tell them that people were there.
So all those people you saw on TV whining about not food and water at the Convention Center were blowing smoke because they BROKE IN THERE and should have been evicted.
There were news reports of tourists who could not get onto a flight out and all the rental cars were taken.
Some tried and didn't make it.
You were posting as I was typing!
They are better off than the people in the dome.
I wonder, how many books will be written about this tragedy?
Maybe I've been too much of an expat to feel sorry for someone who stay in the tourist mode when the infrastructure collapses.
But having seen tourists in their "oh, what a quaint local" approach overseas, I could imagine what the group consists of.
But I still would have done everything to get out, even hiring a taxi..
The people in the dome are better off that the people in the bowl. At least they survived and weren't trapped in their attics.
That was the Best Decision I have made in my life.
Somebody's watching over you. Glad you got out.
Being trapped in an attic is a nightmare. You must consider that when the water rises you can go to the attic but then you most go to the roof to survive. The problem is that you have to break through the roof and in New Orleans the roofs are made of slate.
Why didn't these people before the storm hit?
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