Stadium Hurricane Refuge Like a 'Concentration Camp'

[Ms. Clio]

Published on Friday, September 2, 2005 by Agence France Presse
Stadium Hurricane Refuge Like a 'Concentration Camp'

(snip)

The Superdome was meant to be a hurricane refuge, but those who sought shelter there described a lawless "concentration camp" where two children were reportedly raped and other refugees terrorized by rioters.

(snip)

One 13-year veteran of the New Orleans police force said he and other officers who had been at the Superdome since Sunday were outraged at what they saw as a lack of preparation that allowed the situation in the covered stadium to deteriorate so badly and so quickly.

"This city knew something like this would happen a long time ago. They did nothing to prepare for this. They just rolled the dice and hoped for the best," said the officer who asked not to be identified.

(snip)

Audrey Jordan vented her anger at New Orleans officials, saying they had known for years that a hurricane of Katrina's intensity could cause a breach in the low-lying city's water defences.

"They wanted to pay millions of dollars to rebuild a stadium, but they couldn't even fix the levee," Jordan said.

"We were treated like this was a concentration camp," she said of the Superdome. "One man couldn't take it. He jumped over the railing and died."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0902-06.htm

[Ms. Clio]

1. kick because while most DUers know this by now, it's a good link

to send to anyone who nees a good swift kick in the guts.

Interesting that these people seem more angry at their local government than anyone else, and that makes sense to me--they feel abandoned and betrayed by their own, and I doubt many of them have heard their mayor demanding the feds "get off their asses."



on edit: hmmmmm starting to see a pattern here -- I am the only person who replies to my posts. Yikes. 10-2.