Thousands of Trump rally attendees in Nebraska stranded in freezing cold after event

[SharonClark]

From USAToday. . .

It was 34 degrees when President Donald Trump ended his campaign rally in Omaha, Nebraska’s Eppley Airfield Tuesday night and boarded Air Force One.

Over the course of the next four hours, thousands of Trump rally attendees were stranded outside of the event — waiting for buses that were delayed due to what the Trump administration told an Omaha reporter was a traffic jam. At least 25,000 were in attendance at the rally.

Aaron Sanderford, a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald, was told by Trump officials that buses were having difficulty traveling through the access road to the rally site — which was “limited to one direction.”

The report was corroborated by CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny, who said that thousands continued to be stuck nearly an hour-and-a-half after Trump left Omaha and called the scene a "cluster."

“We need at least 30 more buses,” he quoted an Omaha officer as saying.

While the available buses were navigating the narrow, heavily-impacted roads, attendees were at risk of freezing in the cold. Officers in police cars drove some individuals back nearly four miles to the lot where their cars were parked, Sanderford reported.

City buses, per Omaha Police spokesman Officer Michael Pecha, were deployed to speed up the process of taking people back to parking lots. Many others, he added, walked back two or three miles to return to their cars — which contributed to traffic delays.

At least seven people, per Pecha, were transported to a nearby hospital. Others, officers allegedly said per Omaha Scanner, were showing signs of hypothermia, including fatigue and confusion. . . .

Sanderford reported that the crowd in Omaha was almost fully cleared out by 1 a.m. the next morning.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/28/omaha-trump-rally-thousands-attendees-stranded-cold-after-event/3760175001/

[Shermann]

1. Trump voters left stranded outside in the cold

...what a metaphor!

[kimbutgar]

2. This is terrible for me to say

But I have no pity for these fools!

[Squinch]

3. Gosh. I wonder if Donny Bodybags's campaign will reimburse Omaha for those city buses.

He's such an incompetent asshole.

[Blue Owl]

4. Yeah those non-rush-hour Omaha traffic jams are the worst in the nation

[TwilightZone]

5. The area isn't designed to handle that much traffic.

Eppley is a relatively small airport with limited access, essentially accessible from one main road. If that one road is clogged, nobody moves.

I lived there for 20 years. Locals knew to avoid the place at all costs around events like this because this very thing happens every time.

[Yavin4]

9. Gee. Sounds like an infrastructure problem to me.

Wasn't there supposed to be a week dedicated to that? Or something like that.

[TwilightZone]

12. Omaha is notoriously cheap.

The town is loaded (Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Ameritrade, etc.) but also ridiculously anti-tax so infrastructure is in a constant state of disrepair. They vote down infrastructure and school bonds and incessantly complain about property taxes, then whine about the lack of infrastructure and the state of the public school system, while talking up spending billions on corporate welfare.

That being said, Eppley is a nice, usually high-rated airport (for its size) that just isn't cut out to handle an event like this. Combined with zero planning, the outcome wasn't surprising in the least.

[Maru Kitteh]

6. "Almost" fully cleared by 1am?

If you're one of the left behind, I'll bet that feels just like being "a little pregnant" two weeks after prom.

[Srkdqltr]

7. They don't have a plan. They never did.

[Gothmog]

8. Joe Biden calls out trump's photo op stunt

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[ffr]

15. +1

This is reason, I've lost count, for supporting democrats like Joe Biden!

It's nice to be on the winning team!

[beachbumbob]

11. I coined this fiasca in Nebraska

Trumps typical incompetence

[democrattotheend]

13. In fairness

This is something that happens at big rallies to some extent. At Obama's last rally in Virginia in 2008, we had to wait several hours to get in and several hours to get out. I didn't get home until close to 4 am that night. But it wasn't in sub-zero temperatures. The Trump campaign should have had a better plan here, although it seems certain things like road closures may have been out of their control.

[ffr]

14. Sheep being bused into an event, have to realize they are nonetheless sheep.

Dress accordingly and expect to be left out in the cold by your cult leader.