Thousands Who
Stayed Prepare
For Enforced Evacuation
By Andrew Buncombe
in New Orleans
08 September 2005
The
Independent
Nobody really wanted
to leave, everyone had reasons to stay. Mostly, it was the realisation
that the homes they were sitting in were all they had - and no one knew
when they would be coming back to them.
But eventually the
realisation struck; without food or water, without power and without
any real expectation of getting these things turned around any time
soon, there was really no alternative but to leave.
These hard-core
remnants, some 10,000 or so still estimated to be in this city, were
being evacuated from New Orleans yesterday after Mayor Ray Nagin said
there was no alternative but for them to go. More than a week after
Hurricane Katrina struck the city, the police, coastguard and federal
officials are at this stage being firm, telling the people they really
must leave. It is expected that by tomorrow they are going to be getting
even tougher; one official said the National Guard would deal with anyone
refusing to leave by throwing "them onto a truck".
"I had stuff
to live on, food and water," said Gregory Lukins, one of the evacuees
who were being taken to a car park at the convention centre from where
1,000 people a day were being flown to the airport and there put on
charter planes out of the city. "At first I did not want to leave,
I wanted to stay. But the conditions have got worse. There is no water,
no power." Mr Lukins had a wife and five children who had already
been evacuated. He thought they were in Texas. He was carrying a single
suitcase of clothes.
One thing he did
not know was where he would be taken. "I don't mind," he said.
"Anywhere is better than here." Bobby Breaux and his partner,
Linda Washington, were also preparing to get on one of the choppers.
Water had reached up to the second floor of their home at one point
but it had since receded. Mr Breaux had wanted to stick it out but Ms
Washington wanted to leave. "I didn't want to go. The government
has forced us," he said. "The state troopers came by and said
that they would not be bringing any more water." Ms Washington
said: "We don't know anything about where we are going. That's
one of the worst things. It's frightening."
Yesterday the broken
city was filled with the noise of Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters
and its still partly flooded highways were filled with rescue crews
in flat-bottomed boats, searching those sections of the city still believed
to have people living in them. "The sounds of New Orleans were
jazz, people laughing, people eating a good meal," said Mayor Nagin.
"And now the sounds of New Orleans are helicopters and army vehicles.
This is almost surreal."
Sixty per cent remains
flooded. Dave Lesh, who was leading a rescue crew from California in
the Downman district, said many people refused to leave, even when they
were living in deep flood water. There was no way to force them. "If
they won't leave all we can do is take a GPS [global positioning system]
co-ordinate of their location and tell someone about it," he said.
One of his team
members added: "There was one guy who had water up to his chest.
He was sitting on a fence and he did not want to go. He said that it
was not too hot for him and that he was sleeping on his roof at night."
He added: "They say they survived Betsy and they survived Andrew
and Camille and that they just don't want to go."
Several people said
they had been forced to leave pets behind. One woman, Mary Witte, said
she had been forced to leave her two German deerhounds, even though
her brother was on his way from Texas to pick them up. She had left
them "buckets" of water but expected they would die.
She was angry. "I'm
not blaming Bush, I'm blaming our government as a whole. We are too
busy minding other people's business than to help our own people,"
she said. "I stuck it out for nine days. There was no way I would
have left my dogs."
Nobody really wanted
to leave, everyone had reasons to stay. Mostly, it was the realisation
that the homes they were sitting in were all they had - and no one knew
when they would be coming back to them.
But eventually the
realisation struck; without food or water, without power and without
any real expectation of getting these things turned around any time
soon, there was really no alternative but to leave.
These hard-core
remnants, some 10,000 or so still estimated to be in this city, were
being evacuated from New Orleans yesterday after Mayor Ray Nagin said
there was no alternative but for them to go. More than a week after
Hurricane Katrina struck the city, the police, coastguard and federal
officials are at this stage being firm, telling the people they really
must leave. It is expected that by tomorrow they are going to be getting
even tougher; one official said the National Guard would deal with anyone
refusing to leave by throwing "them onto a truck".
"I had stuff
to live on, food and water," said Gregory Lukins, one of the evacuees
who were being taken to a car park at the convention centre from where
1,000 people a day were being flown to the airport and there put on
charter planes out of the city. "At first I did not want to leave,
I wanted to stay. But the conditions have got worse. There is no water,
no power." Mr Lukins had a wife and five children who had already
been evacuated. He thought they were in Texas. He was carrying a single
suitcase of clothes.
One thing he did
not know was where he would be taken. "I don't mind," he said.
"Anywhere is better than here." Bobby Breaux and his partner,
Linda Washington, were also preparing to get on one of the choppers.
Water had reached up to the second floor of their home at one point
but it had since receded. Mr Breaux had wanted to stick it out but Ms
Washington wanted to leave. "I didn't want to go. The government
has forced us," he said. "The state troopers came by and said
that they would not be bringing any more water." Ms Washington
said: "We don't know anything about where we are going. That's
one of the worst things. It's frightening."
Yesterday the broken city was filled with the noise of Blackhawk and
Chinook helicopters and its still partly flooded highways were filled
with rescue crews in flat-bottomed boats, searching those sections of
the city still believed to have people living in them. "The sounds
of New Orleans were jazz, people laughing, people eating a good meal,"
said Mayor Nagin. "And now the sounds of New Orleans are helicopters
and army vehicles. This is almost surreal."
Sixty per cent remains
flooded. Dave Lesh, who was leading a rescue crew from California in
the Downman district, said many people refused to leave, even when they
were living in deep flood water. There was no way to force them. "If
they won't leave all we can do is take a GPS [global positioning system]
co-ordinate of their location and tell someone about it," he said.
One of his team
members added: "There was one guy who had water up to his chest.
He was sitting on a fence and he did not want to go. He said that it
was not too hot for him and that he was sleeping on his roof at night."
He added: "They say they survived Betsy and they survived Andrew
and Camille and that they just don't want to go."
Several people said
they had been forced to leave pets behind. One woman, Mary Witte, said
she had been forced to leave her two German deerhounds, even though
her brother was on his way from Texas to pick them up. She had left
them "buckets" of water but expected they would die.
She was angry. "I'm
not blaming Bush, I'm blaming our government as a whole. We are too
busy minding other people's business than to help our own people,"
she said. "I stuck it out for nine days. There was no way I would
have left my dogs."
© 2005 Independent
News & Media (UK) Ltd.