Scenes of a Dying City: Misery, despair and rage in the Big Easy Final Edition

• Published in: Times colonist (Victoria)
• Main Author: James Dao, Joseph B. Treaster and Felicity Barringer
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Victoria, B.C Postmedia Network Inc 02.09.2005
• Subjects: NEW ORLEANS

Asked about the numerous accounts of rapes, Joseph H. Matthews, a deputy fire chief and the director of the city's Office of Emergency Preparedness, said some were "probably" true. "Nothing's been confirmed, but you can't discount these reports." The evacuation was proceeding slowly at the Superdome, where the largest group of refugees -- about 23,000 -- were being loaded onto buses for the 560- kilometre trip to the Astrodome in Houston. Kayresa Newman's baby was passing out in her arms as the dense, surging crowd at the Superdome flattened them against a chest-high steel fence. They were stuck in the sweating, frantic mass of people trying to edge toward the gate leading to buses evacuating the ovenlike arena with its overflowing toilets. "I need to get this kid out of here," she said to the armed soldiers trying to control the crowd. Buses trickled in slowly through the day under an armed guard. Perhaps 10,000 storm victims stood out in the open waiting for their chance, alternatively baking under a blazing sun and being soaked by a drizzling rain. The storm victims had been feeling neglected and abused in the understaffed and undersupplied arena and the waiting only made them angrier.