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."
They might be playing a numbers game. A bus that they own can be reused. From what I gather 25,000 have been moved within the last 24 hours to the Houston Astro Dome. That probably required 250 buses for one trip, 125 buses for two quick round trips. Quite a feat actually. What we need to realize is that numbers are FEMA's main responsibility. Limited total death. Thats probably why we wont have a final number anywhere near the real one. In a situation like this you really are on your own. There were two asian tourists who were interviewed during the Los Angeles riots. They were terrified. They were pulled off the freeway by a police road block and directed to side streets where they got lost and were accosted by armed gang bangers.
I heard a lot were trying to leave but they couldn't get flights or rental cars.
Lighten up. This isn't a special class of people.
On one of the shows, I heard them talking about some of the bodies found in Mississippi; they have claw marks on their hands and their feet where they obviously had been trying to break through their roofs.
11,000 in the AstroDome now.
Sir, you sicken me. I don't care what priority they are, they shouldn't be treated like this. They had no way to evacuate, their buses were seized under emergency powers, they have been sent by FEMA to somewhere that FEMA seems to be doing nothing about, and have no idea what is happening.
It's folks like you, who say "Screw anybody not from America", that make foreigners hate America.
You make some good points. I agree with most of it. But lets just say that in this case, for the sake of everyones sanity, you were outbid. Unless of course your Bill Gates.
Yes, they were STRANDED! It was the local yokels who had the best chance to get out and, like idiots, didn't! They'd rather stay so they could loot!
I TOTALLY didn't realize there were 2 DIFFERENT buildings involved here
The media IS NOT pointing that part out
No, they were only stranded after they didn't leave; then they were an impediment to getting the CITIZENS of New Orleans out.
I've heard repeatedly that the only folks left in NO were those too poor to get out and some residents who decided to ride out the storm.
I wonder why these tourists were ever there in the first place. You have to believe they had the means to escape before the storm. Why didn't they?
That looks like the CNN number. On another thread that number was cast into doubt. Apparently it has reached maximum capacity (which we was told was 25,000). By FEMA of course .....
The sooner they realize it, the better off they'll be.
No, they are not; they're too busy saying "Why wasn't there any food or water at the Convention Center?"
Well, the simple answer is because the CC was NOT a designated shelter for storm victims; after the storm, people began to gravitate toward the SD and when they got there, they learned that they were going to be bused to Houston; the ones who didn't want to leave NO just stood around outside the SD.
The police moved the crowd outside down the street to make way for the buses and the crowd broke into the Convention Center; that's why there was no food, water, or NG there; they weren't suppose to be in 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's a good response. Just the sort of thing that will help Republicans lose ground.
Americans aren't looking for excuses right now, and smart politicians will see that.
You have a problem with the facts?
FEMA's rationale is that its leader is being embarrassed on TV for not knowing the convention center people are there-
which is, in fact, a lie.
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