Evacuation delayed to accomodate more hotel guests

[brooklynite]

3:34 P.M. - (AP) The evacuation of Superdome refugees was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt hotel. They were move to the head of the line to be evacuated -- much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome for days.

The 700 had been trapped in the Hyatt just like the others, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

[AlCzervik]

1. now that is the exact thing that could start a riot.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. EXACTLY

Rescue the white folks first.

They are really asking for trouble here.

[1932]

6. No riots after Tsunami because no huge wealth polarization.

Everyone was in the same boat. Everyone got equal attention.

Not so in the US. Two Americas.

[myrmenki]

13. People from the Superdome were evacuated to Hyatt

according to this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/4208792.stm

And there is a federal emergency response team in the Hyatt, so perhaps they have a few extra urgent cases there?

But I have to agree that all this smells of the usual racism anyway.

[WeRQ4U]

3. That's the first thing I thought.

What the hell country do we live in? Jesus, I can't stand it.

[underpants]

4. I just googled "Football fans hurricane"

and it appears that Bama and FSU and other fans are now being asked to give up their hotel rooms for the hurricane evacuees.

This is a change from yesterday where it was being reported that in Tallahassee at least it looked like evacuees were going to have to leave.

Good news. Wow I just had a chill go up my spine and a tear in my eye. People are good.

[damntexdem]

5. Oh, but naturally the Hyatt inhabitants have top priority:

they're big payers, and they may pay well for the next place they stay. Hey, which do you think is more important: profits or saving lives?

[WCGreen]

28. Actually it was the Ritz......

And You know, those folks were there to visit, they had no chance to leave...

Now those folks in the Superdome, well they could da left, doncha know...

[skooooo]

7. 1st Class vs. Steerage

[Mad_Dem_X]

40. That's what I was thinking - n/t

[nookiemonster]

44. "Steerage"

So fucking true. Words cannot express my rage for these bastards.

[Synnical]

8. More from WDSU

http://www.wdsu.com/news/4887230/detail.html

But an incident Friday at the Superdome has caused some hurricane evacuees to wonder if others are getting special treatment.

The evacuation of Katrina victims onto buses for Texas was interrupted briefly, allowing 700 guests and employees from the adjacent Hyatt Hotel to move to the head of the evacuation line and board school buses.

"How does this work? They are clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" asked Howard Blue, an evacuee.

Blue attempted to join the Hyatt group but was denied a place. As he rejoined the thousands of others enduring subhuman conditions, National Guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

One hotel guest said the group was heading to the airport, but that could not be confirmed. The guest said the Hyatt told its patrons they would have water and phones by nightfall.

[complain jane]

9. WHAT?!?

Oh please say this isn't so.

How much can these poor people take?

[Synnical]

10. It's unbelievable, I know

One outrage after another. I'm just speechless.

[ticapnews]

11. Whatever they can carry with them. (eom)

I know it's not what you meant, but it's true...

[Der Blaue Engel]

16. meaning?

[1932]

12. Two Americas. One for the clean & well-dressed, one for the rest.

[kath]

18. OMFG!

[mom cat]

34. but it is not about race or class! Who ordered this?

[Selatius]

14. Capitalism at its finest

We live in a world built on mutual competition. If you've got the money, you've got the power. If you don't, well, the lowest common denominator is "too fucking bad."

[VegasWolf]

15. Blacks to the back of the bus I guess. nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. I bet nobody died at the Hyatt

[RosaP]

19. Speaking of busses...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

...looks like there would have been busses to get lots of folks without cars out of town before the hurricane. Who should have asked that they be used?

[tammywammy]

20. Really,

Why didn't they use those buses to evacuate people before the storm? That's a good question that needs to be answered.

[RosaP]

21. If it wasn't in their disaster planning...

...maybe it should be next time.

It's hard to blame the mayor, his only administrative experience was running the local Cox cable affiliate. Cable company execs aren't really known for helping poor folks.

[daleo]

38. Mayors don't do disaster planning

That's a job for experts - like FEMA. As far as I know, the mayor made the appropriate requests to higher levels of government at the appropriate times. I think the blame goes higher up the political chain.

[chalky]

46. Buses would have been used--unfortunately the WEAKENED LEVEE THAT BROKE

(You know the one--the one that had it's REPAIR HALTED DUE TO BUSH CUTTING OFF FEDERAL FUNDS) changed that little possibility, didn't it?

[Skittles]

47. yeah

buses could have evacuated 100,000 people. Want to buy a bridge ?

[Xithras]

22. There's a little more to this story.

There was an article earlier today on this. Apparently the hotel chain discovered that they still had customers stuck in the area, and hired several private buses at considerable expense to go in and rescue them. When the buses arrived, the authorities commandeered them for the general evacuation effort. The hotel chain went ballistic, and apparently pulled a number of strings to get some replacement buses.

Personally, I can see both positions here, but it was certainly handled poorly. If Hyatt was sick of waiting for the government to act, it was a GOOD THING that they took the initiative to send in their own buses to rescue their own people and guests, and it was probably improper for the government to seize those buses since they were headed in to rescue people anyway.

Still, they should have loaded them around the corner or something. No matter what the reasoning, it LOOKED bad and certainly pissed a whole lot of people off. There was NO valid reason why the Hyatt guests should have been marched over to the Superdome to pass up all of the other waiting people and get on their buses. If they wanted a private haul, that's fine, but it should have been done at the Hyatt. The way it was handled is simply insulting.

[RosaP]

23. that makes sense...

Again not having busses wouldn't have been a problem if they'd just used the school buses before the hurricane. Rescue workers from other areas say that the first thing they do before an impending hurricane is to take all the vehicles to high ground so that they can be used later.

My previous posting in this thread links to a picture of hundreds of unused N.O. school buses.

[PeacePal]

25. Okay - I'll give kudos to the Hyatt's resourcefulness, but WHY

were they able to order buses not once, but twice, yet no one's spending my tax dollars to order buses for people who were trapped without phones, transportation, or even sanitation?

I thought that was one reason I PAID taxes, so our gov't would be there when necessary. Isn't that the definition of a 'state of emergency' - when people have lost access to their usual means of caring for themselves.

This is just one more story I hope proves to be a rumor, but my hope's getting tattered.....

BTW, their "luggage"??? Let's hope it was never more than a carry-on size bag of one days' clothes and toiletries, else why not make room for more people?

[Autonomy]

26. So a hotel chain was able to do what the federal govt could not.

[mistertrickster]

24. Life boats of the Titanic . . . partly filled with the rich while the poor

drowned in ice-cold water.

This isn't what I pay taxes for!

[Cobalt Violet]

27. Notice how "guests" aren't "refugees".

[goodhue]

37. indeed

very telling

[Milspec]

39. Could it be because

the "guests" have a home to go back to once they get out of NO?

[terip64]

29. It goes from 3:31 P.M. to 3:36 P.M.

IT"S NOT THERE ANYMORE

[terip64]

30. KICK!

[terip64]

31. kick

[doc03]

32. Of all places Faux news Shepard Smith and Geraldo

were both reporting this story last night. Shepard Smith was really pissed about that and he said the people in the Superdome could walk out of NOLA but our government would not let them.

[terip64]

33. The entry is missing on the website!

It now goes from 3:31 P.M. to 3:36 P.M.

[terip64]

35. kick

[terip64]

36. kick

[Mad_Dem_X]

41. I was actually proud of ol' Shep then

When Insanity was butting in with, "Let's put this in perspective..." and Shep was like, "Here's all the perspective you need, Sean!"

[terip64]

42. Do you see that the entry is missing from the website?

[terip64]

43. The entry is missing on the website!

It now goes from 3:31 to 3:36 and skips the 3:34 entry

[chalky]

45. Story has been "disappeared"! There's a CNN link on this locked page.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1750145