150 Britons missing after hurricane

[cal04]

A Government minister has said as many as 150 Britons are unaccounted for in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Foreign Office minister Lord Triesman stressed that many of those citizens are likely to be safe, but said work is being carried out to find them.

He said relatives had inquired about 300 Britons and that contact has been made with about half of those people.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1889612005

[Horse with no Name]

1. You watch. This is going to turn into an international incident

British families trapped in New Orleans last night claimed that US authorities had refused to evacuate them as Hurricane Katrina approached the city.

Although assistance was offered to US residents, British nationals were told they would have to fend for themselves. According to those who remain stranded in the stricken city, police had visited hotels and guest houses on the eve of the hurricane offering to evacuate Americans, but not Britons.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1562517,00.html

And now 300 are not accounted for? There will be hell to pay in Parliament. They aren't thrilled with Tony and Georgie's folly in Iraq--but I have a good feeling the Brits will clean house over this and withdraw their troops from Iraq.

On edit: Please post your post in GD.:)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. That is shocking. Thanks for posting it.

So much for the "special relationship".

[moggie]

3. There's a special relationship all right

But it's always involved the UK bending over for the US.

Presumably the US no longer wants tourists from overseas?

[LeftishBrit]

4. Just what I was thinking...

I think that a lot of people, who were not deterred from travel to the USA by the terrorist threat, will be deterred by the thought that they could be thrown to the wolves in a crisis. Not the most important thing on the agenda at the moment - but tourism/ overseas collaborations are very important to the US economy.

And THIS is the government that Blair has allowed to determine British foreign policy to a large extent!