Horror of Hurricane Katrina
2005-09-04 17:50
London - British nationals caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the United States recounted horror stories of their experience sheltering in squalid and terrifying conditions as they arrived home on Sunday.
Tearful Britons - mostly university-age students - hugged relatives as they disembarked at airports in London.
Will Nelson, 21, who was visiting New Orleans after working on the Camp America cultural exchange program and took shelter in the city's Superdome, said conditions in the refuge deteriorated to desperate levels.
"There were mothers with their children lying in filth and the toilets and water stopped working," Nelson said.
"The smell was disgusting and there were old people just sitting down in the road as well as the sick."
"It was a horrible place to be and dangerous," Nelson said.
Fellow summer camp worker Sarah Yorston, 21, who also rode out the hurricane inside the Superdome, said she witnessed "total chaos and devastation".
"These people have lost everything and they are just desperate people doing desperate things."
Another Briton, Marisa Haigh, said international tourists stranded in the Superdome had stuck together for safety.
"White tourists were getting picked on, we gathered all the British and international survivors," Haigh was reported as saying in Britain's News of the World newspaper.
Drug addicts
"I'd heard stories about girls getting raped inside the dome.
Some were told they'd get their legs broken if they didn't get out because the masses were scared there wasn't enough food to go round," Haigh reportedly said.
"A lot of people were homeless drug addicts. Their drugs were confiscated, so lots of them were wandering around in a terrible state."
Other Britons described the atmosphere inside the Superdome as intimidating and told of witnessing violent confrontations.
Britain's foreign office said it was unclear how many Britons were yet to be evacuated from the battered Gulf Coast region.
British officials in Houston said up to 20 Britons were already on their way home, with others waiting for the next available seats on aircraft.
The foreign office came in for criticism from some survivors who claimed that they were left to fend for themselves with no assistance from British consular staff in the United States.
A foreign office spokesperson said the British embassy in New Orleans was forced to shut and British officials were not able to get into the region.
He said staff were now meeting buses that were ferrying the rescued to other southern American cities.
- AP