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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Britons describe hurricane ordeal



mark61
05-09-05, 18:56
Britons returning from New Orleans have described the horrifying conditions in the city.
Many were among the thousands of people who took refuge in the Superdome stadium from the floods that engulfed the US city following Hurricane Katrina.

JENNY SACHS

Jenny Sachs, of Sheffield, told how soldiers had to smuggle her out of the Superdome in secret.

She said they had told her the lights would go out before the rescue, and warned her not to use a torch for fear of attack.

She was one of about 30 Britons who, realising they could not escape the city, fled to the stadium for shelter.

"It has hit me more now I am at home, when you can have clean water, how bad it was," she said.

She said people had been raped and that others were beaten up.

"One of the soldiers did get shot and he was brought in," she said.

"A guy was brought in who had seven stab wounds and was covered in blood."

The military told all non-US citizens to stay together for safety, Ms Sachs added.

They later told them they would be secretly smuggled out in groups of 10 under cover of darkness as it had become too dangerous for them to remain in the stadium, she told BBC News.

"When we were leaving, people were going 'Where are you going?' and giving us looks.

"But the military got us out, which we were all thankful for."

I was telling people, 'Do not worry. She will be OK. She is in the best resourced, best organised country in the world. They will look after her'
Bruce Sachs

Ms Sachs' American father, Bruce, said "the extent all this fell apart so quickly" had left him "totally shocked and very embarrassed" to be a US citizen.

"At the point where the hurricane started, I was telling people, 'Do not worry. She will be OK. She is in the best resourced, best organised country in the world. They will look after her'."

GED, SANDRA AND RONAN SCOTT


After looters had broken into New Orleans' Ramada Hotel, bus driver Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool - stranded with his wife Sandra, 37, and their seven-year-old son, Ronan - had waded waist-deep through the filthy water to barricade the hotel's doors, he told BBC News.

"It was like wading through an open sewer.

"It reeked to high heaven and made you want to vomit.

"Outside I could see bodies floating in the water."

Mr Scott told BBC News he had ripped wires attached to speakers from the walls of the flooded hotel bar and tied tables and chairs together as makeshift barricades.

Hotel guests had already managed to chase one group of looters from the building, he added.

They had then taken turns patrolling the hotel's corridors with a torch, Mr Scott told BBC News.

CHARLOTTE AND REBECCA SCOTT

Charlotte Scott, 19, from Reading, and her sister Rebecca, 20, were met by their parents at Gatwick after being evacuated from the Superdome.


Charlotte said: "Conditions in there were just horrible for anyone and everyone; most people just wanted to survive.

"The smell was horrendous. You just wanted to throw up the whole time.

"Throughout the three days we just grouped together because none of us knew what we were in for. I saw a couple of people getting taken away by the Army and others were getting angry.

JAMIE TROUT

Jamie Trout, 22, of Sunderland, told BBC News the five "horrific" days he and his two female friends had spent in the Superdome, before being freed by the US National Guard, had been "like something out of Lord of the Flies".

"It was very dangerous - rioting, looting of vending machines, racial abuse, absolutely terrible sanitary conditions."

They had been "intimidated by large groups of men" and, Mr Trout added, he had feared he would be killed.


The group had heard a child had been raped and found in the toilets with a broken neck, Mr Trout told BBC News.

"That was a really hard time. It made us all feel sick.

"The girls were terrified to go to the toilet.

The group had called the British embassy in Washington from a mobile phone, Mr Trout added.

But embassy staff had told them to contact the British consulate in New Orleans.

When they had pointed out it was "15ft under water", the embassy staff had simply repeated they should contact the consulate, Mr Trout told BBC News.

"That was obviously very difficult to take."

ED WHITAKER

Ed Whitaker, 22, of Bristol said: "It was hell on Earth.

"The last couple of days in the dome became completely chaotic and it was too dangerous to even queue for food.

"There were National Guard soldiers there giving a couple of items out a day - but we ended up giving up.

"Once the power and water went then everything got messed up."

WILL NELSON

Will Nelson, 21, who spent five days in the stadium where up to 30,000 people took shelter from rising flood-water, described the situation as "chaos".

He said the atmosphere was "desperate" and "everyone was running out of food".

Mr Nelson told BBC News there were rumours of rapes and stabbings amidst the thousands packed into the stadium, as well as suicides.

The Loughborough University graduate, who had been travelling in the US after working in Camp America, said: "There were mothers with their children lying in corridors in filth and the toilets and water stopped working.

"The smell was disgusting and there were old people just sitting down in the road as well as the sick."

He had been staying in a hostel in the city when he was told to evacuate to the stadium as Hurricane Katrina swept in from the Gulf of Mexico.

Foreign travellers in the Superdome had herded together for safety, after warnings from US air force personnel.

"There were 40 or 50 of us. The lads were on the outside and the girls were on the inside and we just made sure that we didn't leave any of our bags."

ADAM FRIEND

Adam Friend, 21, of Exeter, ended up in the stadium after being unable to evacuate the city before the storm.

Speaking from Dallas, Texas, he BBC News: "Me and my friend were touring America. We couldn't get out of New Orleans. Everything closed down on Saturday so we were stuck.

"We went to the Superdome to get some shelter and all hell broke loose in there. I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through what we've had to go through in there."

PETER HENRY

Peter Henry, 20, who had also been in New Orleans after working in Camp America, also described appalling conditions.

"One of the girls had to help with a victim who got stabbed several times, which brought her quite close to breaking point," he said.

"By Tuesday night you heard of some suicides, people had jumped from balconies, or people being pushed, there were all sorts of rumours flying around. I honestly didn't think I was going to wake up on Wednesday morning."

He said the international travellers did what they could to help others, such as fanning people with bits of cardboard, helping sweep up blood or holding fluid bags for the infirm.

I saw between 50 and 100 people fighting over a bottle of Coca Cola
Peter Henry

Nevertheless, the travellers, had been "threatened and harassed" by some of the locals in the Superdome, Mr Henry told BBC News.

"We had stuff chucked at us - but I still felt very sorry for them."

Rioting and looting had broken out when food supplies had run out, Mr Henry added.

"People were smashing drinks machines with chair legs.

"I saw between 50 and 100 people fighting over a bottle of Coca Cola.

They had nothing and were not scared of being arrested.

"They just wanted food and water for their children."

Mr Henry left on Friday and was bussed to Dallas, Texas, where he was met by his father Wayne, who had flown over from the UK to try and find his son.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/4214746.stm