Oh, God Be Merciful. Please Get Help Here Now.
Trapped in an Arena of Suffering
'We are like animals,' a mother says inside the Louisiana Superdome, where hope and supplies are sparse.
By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer
Link Here
NEW ORLEANS — A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.
The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in.
By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. A few hundred people were evacuated from the arena Wednesday, and buses will take away the vast majority of refugees today.
"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.
At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.
The hurricane left most of southern Louisiana without power, and the arena, which is in the central business district of New Orleans, was not spared. The air conditioning failed immediately and a swampy heat filled the dome.
An emergency generator kept some lights on, but quickly failed. Engineers have worked feverishly to keep a backup generator running, at one point swimming under the floodwater to knock a hole in the wall to install a new diesel fuel line. But the backup generator is now faltering and almost entirely submerged.
There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming. The city's water supply, which had held up since Sunday, gave out early Wednesday, and toilets in the Superdome became inoperable and began to overflow.
"There is feces on the walls," said Bryan Hebert, 43, who arrived at the Superdome on Monday. "There is feces all over the place."
The Superdome is patrolled by more than 500 Louisiana National Guard troops, many of whom carry machine guns as sweaty, smelly people press against metal barricades that keep them from leaving, shouting as the soldiers pass by: "Hey! We need more water! We need help!"
Most refugees are given two 9-ounce bottles of water a day and two boxed meals: spaghetti, Thai chicken or jambalaya.
One man tried to escape Wednesday by leaping a barricade and racing toward the streets. The man was desperate, National Guard Sgt. Caleb Wells said. Everything he was able to bring to the Superdome had been stolen. His house had probably been destroyed, his relatives killed.
"We had to chase him down," Wells said. "He said he just wanted to get out, to go somewhere. We took him to the terrace and said: 'Look.' "
Below, floodwaters were continuing to rise, submerging cars.
"He didn't realize how bad things are out there," Wells said. "He just broke down. He started bawling. We took him back inside."
The soldiers — most are sleeping two or three hours a night, and many have lost houses — say they are doing the best they can with limited resources and no infrastructure. But they have become the target of many refugees' anger.
"They've got the impression that we have everything and they have nothing," 1st Sgt. John Jewell said. "I tell them: 'We're all in the same boat. We're living like you're living.' Some of them understand. Some of them have lost their senses."
Thousands of people are still wading to high ground out of the flooding, and most head for the Superdome. Officials have turned away hundreds.
"The conditions are steadily declining," said Maj. Ed Bush. "The systems have done all they can do. We don't know how much longer we can hold on. The game now is to squeeze everything we can out of the Superdome and then get out."
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Wednesday that more than 100 buses were staged outside the city for today's evacuation. He had asked officials in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., to send all of their school buses — about 500 — to New Orleans. If all of the buses make it into the city, Nagin said, the Superdome could be cleared out by nightfall today.
--BRING HOME LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD NOW!!!!!
NOW!!!!!!!
NOW!!!!!!!---
'We are like animals,' a mother says inside the Louisiana Superdome, where hope and supplies are sparse.
By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer
Link Here
NEW ORLEANS — A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.
The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. About 16,000 people eventually settled in.
By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. A few hundred people were evacuated from the arena Wednesday, and buses will take away the vast majority of refugees today.
"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again.
At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for.
The hurricane left most of southern Louisiana without power, and the arena, which is in the central business district of New Orleans, was not spared. The air conditioning failed immediately and a swampy heat filled the dome.
An emergency generator kept some lights on, but quickly failed. Engineers have worked feverishly to keep a backup generator running, at one point swimming under the floodwater to knock a hole in the wall to install a new diesel fuel line. But the backup generator is now faltering and almost entirely submerged.
There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming. The city's water supply, which had held up since Sunday, gave out early Wednesday, and toilets in the Superdome became inoperable and began to overflow.
"There is feces on the walls," said Bryan Hebert, 43, who arrived at the Superdome on Monday. "There is feces all over the place."
The Superdome is patrolled by more than 500 Louisiana National Guard troops, many of whom carry machine guns as sweaty, smelly people press against metal barricades that keep them from leaving, shouting as the soldiers pass by: "Hey! We need more water! We need help!"
Most refugees are given two 9-ounce bottles of water a day and two boxed meals: spaghetti, Thai chicken or jambalaya.
One man tried to escape Wednesday by leaping a barricade and racing toward the streets. The man was desperate, National Guard Sgt. Caleb Wells said. Everything he was able to bring to the Superdome had been stolen. His house had probably been destroyed, his relatives killed.
"We had to chase him down," Wells said. "He said he just wanted to get out, to go somewhere. We took him to the terrace and said: 'Look.' "
Below, floodwaters were continuing to rise, submerging cars.
"He didn't realize how bad things are out there," Wells said. "He just broke down. He started bawling. We took him back inside."
The soldiers — most are sleeping two or three hours a night, and many have lost houses — say they are doing the best they can with limited resources and no infrastructure. But they have become the target of many refugees' anger.
"They've got the impression that we have everything and they have nothing," 1st Sgt. John Jewell said. "I tell them: 'We're all in the same boat. We're living like you're living.' Some of them understand. Some of them have lost their senses."
Thousands of people are still wading to high ground out of the flooding, and most head for the Superdome. Officials have turned away hundreds.
"The conditions are steadily declining," said Maj. Ed Bush. "The systems have done all they can do. We don't know how much longer we can hold on. The game now is to squeeze everything we can out of the Superdome and then get out."
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said Wednesday that more than 100 buses were staged outside the city for today's evacuation. He had asked officials in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., to send all of their school buses — about 500 — to New Orleans. If all of the buses make it into the city, Nagin said, the Superdome could be cleared out by nightfall today.
--BRING HOME LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD NOW!!!!!
NOW!!!!!!!
NOW!!!!!!!---
posted by Christy at 12:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home