saw it thursday night, the woman was calling from BALTIMORE, having already been evacuated. she told the story how they were at the Ritz Carlton, and the NG was guarding them. Then, buses came for them but couldn't get to the Ritz, so they had to walk three whole blocks (!!!!!) for ten minutes to get to the buses in "raw sewage". she was already HOME before Bush entered town with the supplies. Both my wife and I were watching and looked at each other.
I said "so...the ritz carlton people get a NG unit as security?
she also mentioned how lucky it was that a doctor in their hotel "commandeered" some antibiotics from a local drugstore to bring back to them.
I wish I had a link.
edited: ok, found some links...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-30-hurricane-looting_x.htmAt a drug store on Canal Street just outside the French Quarter, two police officers with pump shotguns stood guard as
workers from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street loaded large laundry bins full of medications, snack foods and bottled water.
"This is for the sick," Officer Jeff Jacob said. "We can
commandeer whatever we see fit, whatever is necessary to maintain law."
http://asmallvictory.net/archives/009722.htmlThe city now has no clean water, no sewerage system, no electricity, and no real communications. Bodies are still being recovered floating in the floods. We are worried about a cholera epidemic. Even the police are without effective communications.
We have a group of armed police here with us at the hotel that is admirably trying to exert some local law enforcement.This is tough because looting is now rampant. Most of it is not malicious looting. These are poor and desperate people with no housing and no medical care and no food or water trying to take care of themselves and their families.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.htmlThe Ritz-Carlton New Orleans has been trying to evacuate guests by motor coach, but the buses keep getting commandeered for other rescue efforts.
“What transportation is coming into the city is sometimes being diverted to other emergency situations,” said Vivian Deuschl, vice president of public relations for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC. “
All the people in the hotel are a priority. There’s just so many situations there.”
About 300 of the 1,200 employees and guests who weathered Hurricane Katrina at the Canal Street hotel still remain. The hotel is surrounded by about four feet of water and supplies at the hotel are beginning to run low.
“We have as much security as we possibly can,” Deuschl said.Inside the hotel, five doctors who were in town for an HIV convention have turned the French Quarter Bar into an infirmary to assist guests with medical issues that have arisen during their stressful stay. Earlier in the week, the doctors broke into a Walgreens drug store across the street, with Walgreen Co.’s permission, Deuschl said, to get medical supplies.
“We hope to get them out tonight. We have been trying to get them out sooner, but it’s been challenging,” “It’s an extremely difficult situation.”
http://www.canada.com/travel/story.html?id=d0102fcb-3e7d-479f-918c-b4f47e53927f