Evacuee from New Orleans describes frustrating scene at shelter

[DogPoundPup]

Source: katc.com

BOSSIER CITY, La. (AP) - An evacuee from New Orleans is describing a frustrating scene outside a shelter in Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana.

Harmonica player J.D. Hill was on a bus provided by the state that carried him and others to safety. He's a resident of the Musicians' Village in New Orleans. It's a cluster of homes that New Orleans musicians Harry Connick Junior and Branford Marsalis built through Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina. It provides affordable housing for musicians and others who lost their homes to Katrina.

At the shelter today, Hill says elderly evacuees and young children had to wait to be searched before going inside. He describes "funky bus bathrooms" and says, "People can't sleep, we're not being told anything." He says, "We're at their mercy."

Read more: http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8931558

[Raven]

1. People were searched??? What's that all about? n/t

[dysfunctional press]

12. well a lot of them are porobably...gasp...black! and you never know what those people are up to...

:sarcasm:

[napi21]

2. I don't mean to be calous, but if that's the worst experience, I don't

see a problem.

[cobalt1999]

3. I agree.

Checked for weapons and the bathroom is a little funky. Big whoop.

[Th1onein]

4. They are being treated like criminals, not evacuees.

THAT'S the problem. I also read that people without picture IDs could not board the buses. What about the homeless?

[WriteDown]

6. Many homeless shelters also search for weapons...

There are people who prey on and bully evacuees/homeless/transients. This is a good idea.

[hedgehog]

8. Until the day comes when we can all identify criminals on sight,

it's safer for everyone to make sure there are no weapons in the crowd. Given that people are exhausted and stressed, even a normally law abiding citizen might get into a fight and shoot someone if a gun was handy.

[progressivebydesign]

11. some of the evacuees, statistically, ARE criminals. Think about it.

I'm talking about the search at the shelters. You have busloads of people, not knowing who they are, and you're having them sleep alongside women and kids, and you have no idea who they are or where they come from. There is no locked door.. no sense of privacy or safety. Damn right they should search for weapons in the shelters. ALL shelters do that... for a reason.

Statistically, a percentage of people in those shelters WILL be criminals. And NO has been plagued with extremely high crime rates for many years. He should not be complaining about the searches, it keeps the good guys like him safer.

[DogPoundPup]

5. Police state is catching on? ... that's just great

:sarcasm:

[Auggie]

7. Could make people want to stay home during the next hurricane

[mbperrin]

9. Hasn't flown lately?

Tighter searches, better bathrooms, never can sleep with all the racket going on....could just drive yourself, yah?

[progressivebydesign]

10. I'm sure it was uncomfortable.. but it was a SHELTER

I'm not arguing that it was a bummer to be evacuated, but to complain about bus bathrooms being funky, and being searched upon arrival.. that just seems ridiculous in light of the fact it's an evacuation. It is not going to be comfortable, it's moving 1.9 million poeple out of a city. People with money were able to load up their SUVs and drive outta there and stay in hotels, but if you can't do that, you work with what they give you. The alternative is much worse... as we saw in Katrina.

It's a free bus ride out of NO, and free accommodations, so that you don't die. If the worse thing you encounter is a dirty bus bathroom.. then you're lucky.

And the searching thing I TOTALLY understand, because of the problems they had in shelters last time because they're throwing men, women, and children, into a large building and need to keep everyone safe. Let's not pretend that NO doesnt' have a disproportionate amount of violent crime..