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Superdome exodus on hold after shots, fires
National Guard troops in armored vehicles poured into New Orleans on Thursday to curb the growing lawlessness that included shots reportedly fired at a helicopter airlifting people out of the Superdome and arson fires outside the arena.
The scene at the Superdome became increasingly chaotic, with thousands of people rushing from nearby hotels and other buildings, hoping to climb onto the buses taking evacuees from the arena, officials said. Paramedics became increasingly alarmed by the sight of people with guns.
The operation to bus more than 20,000 people to the Houston Astrodome was suspended “until they gain control of the Superdome,” said Richard Zeuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation of sick and injured people from the Superdome.
He said that military would not fly out of the Superdome either because of the gunfire and that the National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control.
“That’s not enough,” Zeuschlag. “We need a thousand.”
He said medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said the military — which was handling the evacuation of the able-bodied from the Superdome — had suspended operations, too, because fires set outside the arena were preventing buses from getting close enough to pick up people.
Zeuschlag said shots were fired at a military helicopter over the Superdome before daybreak, adding that when another evacuation helicopter tried to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner overnight, the pilot reported that 100 people were on the landing pad, and some of them had guns.
“He was frightened and would not land,” Zeuschlag said.
Reinforcements called in
An additional 10,000 National Guard troops from across the country were ordered into the Gulf Coast to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/
The evacuation of stranded hurricane victims from New Orleans' Superdome stadium has been suspended after shots were fired at a rescue helicopter.
A spokesman for the Louisiana ambulance service told the BBC the crowd had grown unruly and he was concerned for the safety of his staff.
He said a national guard had been shot, but he had not been seriously injured.
There are widespread reports of looting in the city which is mostly under water. A full evacuation has begun.
Many people have spent days on rooftops waiting to be rescued.
Hundreds or even thousands are feared to have drowned.
The government has declared a public health emergency along the whole of the Gulf coast. In Mississippi, 110 people are confirmed dead, but officials warn the toll is expected to rise.
More than a million people were evacuated from the New Orleans area before the hurricane struck on Monday, but Mayor Ray Nagin has estimated that up to 100,000 people remain in the city.
During the storm, more than 9,000 took shelter at the Superdome, but the numbers have swelled to 20,000 and conditions there have sharply deteriorated.
Mayor Nagin, ordering all residents to abandon the low-lying city, has warned it will be months before people are able to return to their homes.
Buses have begun taking the most vulnerable to the Louisiana state capital Baton Rouge.
Others are being taken 560km (350 miles) away to Houston's Astrodome stadium in Texas, where beds and blankets for up to 25,000 people have been set up.
US President George W Bush, who flew over flood-stricken areas on Wednesday, has acknowledged there is "frustration" at the pace of relief efforts.
But he called for patience during what is one of the biggest relief operations ever mounted in the US.
In an interview with ABC television, President Bush condemned the wave of looting sweeping New Orleans.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," he said.
Heat and stench
The tens of thousands of people who are still in New Orleans are desperate to leave, the BBC's Alistair Leithead reports from the Louisiana city.
There is no electricity, and people who have lost everything are struggling to find food and clean water.
Those waiting to be evacuated are thought to include 10,000 patients, staff and refugees from nine city hospitals, and at least 7,600 prison inmates.
Those in the Superdome stadium are living in appalling conditions.
The heat, humidity and sanitary conditions are reported to be unbearable, and people are crowding onto the stadium's concourse to avoid the stench.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4205074.stm
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Police and National Guard troops struggled to restore order Thursday in New Orleans, where gunfire, looting and small fires have disrupted efforts to evacuate the flooded city.
Authorities started busing evacuees from the Louisiana Superdome Wednesday night, but an official with the Louisiana National Guard said that operation has been suspended because of deteriorating conditions.
The stadium has been the shelter of last resort for about 30,000 people who did not escape the city before Hurricane Katrina hit.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the National Guard said there were reports that several small trash fires were burning around the building and firefighters were having a hard time reaching the area.
"It's a great concern. We've got to get them put out," he told CNN's Miles O'Brien in Baton Rouge. "Although they're small trash fires and may burn out, we don't want to take the chance of anything spreading."
There were also reports that shots had been fired at an Army Chinook helicopter that was being used to get people away from the Superdome to buses for transport.
Harris County communications director Gloria Roemer told CNN the operations would be put on hold for "a couple of hours." Roemer said the situation in New Orleans was "out of control." CNN has not yet been able to contact New Orleans officials for comment.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/index.html
The operation to bus more than 20,000 people to the Houston Astrodome was suspended “until they gain control of the Superdome,” said Richard Zeuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation of sick and injured people from the Superdome.
He said that military would not fly out of the Superdome either because of the gunfire and that the National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control.
“That’s not enough,” Zeuschlag. “We need a thousand.”
He said medics were calling him and crying for help because they were so scared of people with guns at the Superdome.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said the military — which was handling the evacuation of the able-bodied from the Superdome — had suspended operations, too, because fires set outside the arena were preventing buses from getting close enough to pick up people.
Zeuschlag said shots were fired at a military helicopter over the Superdome before daybreak, adding that when another evacuation helicopter tried to land at a hospital in the outlying town of Kenner overnight, the pilot reported that 100 people were on the landing pad, and some of them had guns.
“He was frightened and would not land,” Zeuschlag said.
Reinforcements called in
An additional 10,000 National Guard troops from across the country were ordered into the Gulf Coast to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/
The evacuation of stranded hurricane victims from New Orleans' Superdome stadium has been suspended after shots were fired at a rescue helicopter.
A spokesman for the Louisiana ambulance service told the BBC the crowd had grown unruly and he was concerned for the safety of his staff.
He said a national guard had been shot, but he had not been seriously injured.
There are widespread reports of looting in the city which is mostly under water. A full evacuation has begun.
Many people have spent days on rooftops waiting to be rescued.
Hundreds or even thousands are feared to have drowned.
The government has declared a public health emergency along the whole of the Gulf coast. In Mississippi, 110 people are confirmed dead, but officials warn the toll is expected to rise.
More than a million people were evacuated from the New Orleans area before the hurricane struck on Monday, but Mayor Ray Nagin has estimated that up to 100,000 people remain in the city.
During the storm, more than 9,000 took shelter at the Superdome, but the numbers have swelled to 20,000 and conditions there have sharply deteriorated.
Mayor Nagin, ordering all residents to abandon the low-lying city, has warned it will be months before people are able to return to their homes.
Buses have begun taking the most vulnerable to the Louisiana state capital Baton Rouge.
Others are being taken 560km (350 miles) away to Houston's Astrodome stadium in Texas, where beds and blankets for up to 25,000 people have been set up.
US President George W Bush, who flew over flood-stricken areas on Wednesday, has acknowledged there is "frustration" at the pace of relief efforts.
But he called for patience during what is one of the biggest relief operations ever mounted in the US.
In an interview with ABC television, President Bush condemned the wave of looting sweeping New Orleans.
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," he said.
Heat and stench
The tens of thousands of people who are still in New Orleans are desperate to leave, the BBC's Alistair Leithead reports from the Louisiana city.
There is no electricity, and people who have lost everything are struggling to find food and clean water.
Those waiting to be evacuated are thought to include 10,000 patients, staff and refugees from nine city hospitals, and at least 7,600 prison inmates.
Those in the Superdome stadium are living in appalling conditions.
The heat, humidity and sanitary conditions are reported to be unbearable, and people are crowding onto the stadium's concourse to avoid the stench.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4205074.stm
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Police and National Guard troops struggled to restore order Thursday in New Orleans, where gunfire, looting and small fires have disrupted efforts to evacuate the flooded city.
Authorities started busing evacuees from the Louisiana Superdome Wednesday night, but an official with the Louisiana National Guard said that operation has been suspended because of deteriorating conditions.
The stadium has been the shelter of last resort for about 30,000 people who did not escape the city before Hurricane Katrina hit.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the National Guard said there were reports that several small trash fires were burning around the building and firefighters were having a hard time reaching the area.
"It's a great concern. We've got to get them put out," he told CNN's Miles O'Brien in Baton Rouge. "Although they're small trash fires and may burn out, we don't want to take the chance of anything spreading."
There were also reports that shots had been fired at an Army Chinook helicopter that was being used to get people away from the Superdome to buses for transport.
Harris County communications director Gloria Roemer told CNN the operations would be put on hold for "a couple of hours." Roemer said the situation in New Orleans was "out of control." CNN has not yet been able to contact New Orleans officials for comment.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.impact/index.html
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Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., in charge of the special needs shelter at the dome, described the Superdome and a nearby arena as a health department's nightmare.
"These conditions are atrocious," he said. "We'll take trucks, planes, boats, anything else, I have to get these people out of here."
By mid-afternoon, medics were hauling people off one after another because of heat-related problems. Even as the evacuation was going on, people walked through waist-deep water to get to the Superdome.
Tempers flared in the crowd. One woman yelled: "You're just lying to us! You had us standing all day in this heat, and you're lying to us. You're not taking us anywhere!"
The officer yelled back, "Look, ma'am, do you think I'm in charge? Do you think I'm making decisions? I told you what they told me."
The Astrodome's schedule has been cleared through December for housing evacuees, said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The building no longer is the home of a professional sports team - the Houston Astros left in 2000.
Cots and blankets for up to 25,000 people were being set up on the Astrodome's floor. Knowing that the people would arrive tired, frustrated and disheartened, shelter organizers began planning activities that might help take the evacuees' minds off their troubles, such as free trips to museums and amusement parks.
Organizers plan to use Astrodome kitchens and locker rooms to keep refugees fed and clean, but even though Houston will have the electricity and dry land New Orleans lacks - taking care of thousands at the Astrodome won't be an easy job.
"Obviously, locker rooms were made to handle baseball teams and football teams, not crowds of 20,000 to 25,000 people," says Shea Guinn, president of SMG Reliant Park, which operates both the Superdome and the Astrodome.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/01/katrina/main810783_page2.shtml
Thousands of New Orleans residents gather at an evacuation staging area in Metairie, La., on Thursday. Some 91,000 refugees were being housed in 375 emergency centers in eight states. Up to 25,000 were expected to be housed in the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles from New Orleans.
Unbelievable
America responds to disaster with compassion
By Ron French and Amy Lee / The Detroit News
Image
Eric Gay / Associated Press
Terri Jones tries to cool fellow hurricane victim Dorothy Divic, 89, who was overheated outside the Convention Center in New Orleans. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care.
Related links
PhotosHurricane Katrina photo gallery
PhotosScreen-size images
Interactive: Katrina's impact
FEMA updates evacuation of New Orleans
Gulf coast region in state of shock, ruin
Katrina leaves death, destruction across Gulf
Coast Guard releases video of rescue efforts
New Orleans rescuers work amid flood and fire
Video from AccuWeather.com
Hurricane tears hole in Superdome roof
Katrina floods Coastal Alabama
Katrina comes ashore
New Orleans satellite image
Airport status
Airline Web sites
How to contribute to disaster relief
Around the Web
go Breaking news from New Orleans - From The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
go Storm Central Weblog - From al.com: Everything Alabama
go Homes wrecked in Alabama as thousands remain without power - From the Mobile Register
go Dauphin Island wrecked; less damage east - From the Birmingham News
go Washing Away: 5 part series - From the Times-Picayune
go Governor asks Bush for troops to help move evacuees - From 2theadvocate.com
go Live Katrina Weblog - From 2theadvocate.com
go CNN: From the heart of the storm - From CNN
go Messages from Katrina survivors - From wdsu.com
go LSU opens doors to LA students - From Kaye's Hurricane Katrina Blog (Southern Louisiana)
go What would happen if a Category 5 hurricane were to hit New Orleans? -- From American Prospect Online
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By foot, bus and stolen vehicle, hundreds of thousands of Louisiana and Mississippi residents are straggling away from the storm-ravaged coastline, having lost their homes, their jobs and their communities in America's greatest refugee crisis since the Civil War.
Dazed and dirty victims streamed into makeshift refugee centers across the South on Thursday, in scenes that were both gut-wrenching and alien. In a country accustomed to seeing refugees only on television, Americans are now facing a million people in need of food, shelter and jobs.
From cities donating sports stadiums to individuals offering futons, the nation is giving a helping hand and a dry bed to hurricane victims. Even 1,000 miles away in Michigan, help is being offered to refugees. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a consortium of businesses invited 3,000 refugees to Metro Detroit. State universities are opening their classrooms to students whose colleges are closed because of the hurricane. Some Michigan residents say they have spare beds for families who've lost theirs.
But will that compassion last the at least three months it will take for New Orleans to dry out? And how will America's refugees react to the loss of identity that comes with having lost so much? Even experts in international refugee operations don't know.
"People will have a place to live. The question is, how will they deal with it?" said Huy Pham, director of international operations for Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee International. "For Americans, a month is a very large displacement. Many of these people will be living (in refugee camps) for months, perhaps years. This is the reality we face."
Natural disaster victims often seek emergency shelter, but that shelter is usually close to home and only for a few days. Because Hurricane Katrina caused widespread flooding and power outages, refugees are being sent hundreds of miles from their homes.
On Thursday, 91,000 refugees were being housed in 375 emergency centers in eight states. Up to 25,000 were expected to be housed in the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles from New Orleans.
About 3,000 evacuees from New Orleans had made it to the Astrodome by Thursday morning, including 14 people who came in a catering truck that they admitted they had stolen. Police had stopped them at one point in the trip but told the evacuees to keep moving out of town.
Homeless trek to Astrodome
The Astrodome originally was reserved for refugees stuck in the Superdome in New Orleans. But as word spread of hot showers and warm meals, a long, scraggly caravan headed west. One of those who made it to Houston was Rhonda Calderon, who arrived crammed in a Nissan Maxima with seven other people after a 14-hour drive.
"We have nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep," she told the Houston Chronicle. "We came to Houston seeking shelter. Our kids are hungry. We have no gas. What do we do?"
Officials are equally perplexed. With few homes left undamaged, Red Cross and FEMA officials will have to find property for long-term temporary housing for a possible 1 million refugees. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, some of the 250,000 residents of south Miami-Dade County forced to find temporary housing remained in federally financed mobile homes for 2 1/2 years.
The secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, said the scope of the disaster was on a scale that Americans were accustomed to seeing only beyond their shores. "Ultimately, we're talking about the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and that will be a challenge in this country on par with some of the tragedies that we've seen overseas," he said, adding that displaced people in hotels, motels, shelters or with relatives would receive rental assistance and other aid to help them through the next weeks and months.
San Antonio, Texas, 540 miles from New Orleans, has agreed to take another 25,000 people. Officials were looking for additional locations.
Mich. colleges contacted
Some of the refugees may end up 1,000 miles away in Metro Detroit.
At least 15 students whose university education was cut off by Katrina have contacted Michigan State University to inquire about guest admissions, and 16 have contacted Eastern Michigan University.
"We're making accommodations for those who really want to keep moving on their education," said Pam Horne, MSU's admissions director. "These are unusual circumstances and we're dealing with each student on a case-by-case basis."
Wayne State has opened its doors to students displaced by Katrina by waiving application fees and allowing students to enroll, even if they don't have their transcripts. Denetra Mack, a Detroiter in her third year at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, enrolled this week at Wayne.
Mack and some friends piled into her car last Saturday and headed to Atlanta to escape the big storm that was headed for the Gulf Coast. Now, Mack's apartment in Jefferson Parish is flooded and all her possessions are destroyed.
"We only grabbed a couple of clothes because we didn't think it'd be as bad as it was," she said. "I'm just thanking God I drove my car to Atlanta, so I have that at least. I know everyone else's cars are gone."
The university is working to transfer Mack's financial aid payments to Wayne, and the university is providing emergency money and book loan money that Mack can pay back at a later date.
Oakland University in Rochester also is offering scholarships to students of universities affected by Katrina.
Homeowners offer rooms
Hundreds of homeowners nationwide posted offers to take in Katrina refugees on the Internet community Craigslist.com. From a one-bedroom in Seattle to a flat in Montana to a spare room and den in Southfield, people from across the nation posted online in hopes that Katrina survivors could find a way out of the Gulf region.
Laurie Roig offered a room with a double bed and a twin bed in the den of her Southfield home to Katrina refugees. Roig was stranded with her parents for a week in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Hugo ravaged the tiny island 15 years ago and wants to help ease the discomfort of the stranded hurricane victims.
"I remember when we finally got back home, walking into the home, the feeling, the relief and the security of being home, and these people don't even have that," Roig said. "It just takes me back to those days. I know what it's like to just get out of there and have a sense of being human again."
"It's unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened that you can give something concrete, not just cash or material possessions. We can actually welcome people in need into our homes," said Mike Nachman, who has offered the finished basement of his Walled Lake home to Katrina survivors through Craigslist.
Most of the displaced are likely to spend months in large government camps, said refugee expert Pham. Because the camps will likely be spread so far from the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana, those refugees won't be able to return to their jobs or maintain connections to family and friends.
"After a month, the reality will set in," said Pham. "I don't see this as something that Americans will understand until it hits."
When it does, refugees will face not only the loss of home and property, but also the loss of identity, Pham said. Without the connections to work, community and home, people can lose their sense of self-worth.
"This is something we will all have to face three to six months from now," said Pham. "The government is going to have to send down teams of counselors."
Jim Russo, executive director of Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, a Pennsylvania-based organization that coordinates international disaster relief, said the refugees he's seen on television staggering out of New Orleans remind him of Kosovo.
"They've lost everything, and now they're going to live in a camp where it is hard to maintain self-respect," Russo said. "It's easy to lose hope."
Once the media tire of the disaster is when the real struggles will begin for refugees. "We're a country of means, in the end we will get through," Pham said. "But the mental health needs can't be ignored."
The Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Post contributed to this report. You can reach Ron French at (313) 222-2175 or rfrench [at] detnews.com.