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Katrina victim's son sues govt
18/08/2006 08:41 - (SA)
New Orleans - The son of a 91-year-old woman who died in her wheelchair awaiting rescue from a shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sued the state and the city on Thursday.
Herbert Freeman Jr is charging numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of "gross negligence and wilful misconduct" in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman, who died slumped in her wheelchair outside the city's convention centre, where thousands waited in vain for help.
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Her body, pushed to one side and covered with a poncho, became an icon of the botched hurricane response.
In court documents, the son charges he was ordered by New Orleans police to seek shelter in the convention centre - even though there was no aid available and no way out.
'She survived the storm, not rescue'
"Let's not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn't get her. She didn't survive the rescue," said John Paul Massicot, an attorney representing the family.
Ethel Freeman, who had broken her hip in 2000, was bedridden and had a feeding tube attached to her stomach. Because of her fragile health, her son thought it would be imprudent to move her when the city called a mandatory evacuation, one day before the Category 3 storm made landfall on August 29.
The two waited out the storm in their house, but were forced to leave on August 30 when rising water - the result of breached levees - began lapping at their doorstep.
Went by boat to shelter
Freeman found a boat and placed his mother and her wheelchair inside. Police stopped them and told them to head to the convention centre, where buses were headed.
Once they reached the shelter, they found teeming crowds and no food, water, medical supplies - or buses. A police officer told Freeman to park his mother outside because the buses were on their way.
Waited in heat for a day
"He told me, 'We'll put her outside so that she can be first in line.' I said 'How long will it be?' He said, 'Maybe an hour. Maybe two,"' said Freeman.
They two waited outside in the searing heat for nearly 24 hours before she succumbed on September 1.
For four days, Freeman watched over her body before he was ordered to leave her at gunpoint, after buses finally arrived, he said. Another evacuee had given him a poncho, which he lay over his elderly mother, covering her face - an image that would be broadcast around the world.
'Symbol of neglect'
He recalls kneeling by the wheelchair and praying, then leaving a note with her name and his cell phone number inside one of her pockets.
It would take him two months to track down her body, which was taken to a morgue in St Gabriel, Louisiana.
"They kept saying she was a symbol of the hurricane. No, she's a symbol of neglect," said Freeman.
State officials said they were not prepared to comment on the lawsuit. City officials did not return calls or an e-mail seeking comment.
- AP
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