While Bush was on vacation and having fun at birthday parties ect, people trying to walk out of the city were shot at, to keep them from crossing the bridge to safety into their suburban towns.
This is what happens when there is no national leadership in a national emergency.
Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly has an excellent article posted today asking why people from New Orleans were stopped from crossing some bridges out.
One bridge is the Crescent City Bridge next to the New Orleans Superdome. Mr Drum asks
For the past couple of days I've vaguely noticed some stories circulating about police preventing people from leaving New Orleans after Katrina hit, but there have been so many urban legendish anecdotes like this making the rounds that I didn't pay much attention to it.
Big mistake. Not only is the story true, it's worse than you can imagine. It wasn't New Orleans cops keeping people in, it was cops from other cities keeping people out:
First, many of the stranded, dead, and dying were women, children, old, or infirm. Many of the able bodied DID try to walk out. All the roads out of town were washed out except the Crescent Cities Bridge, which led into Gretna, in Jefferson Parish. - link
On Fox News of all places Geraldo Rovera said:
"Let them walk out of here, let them walk the hell out of here!" he exclaimed in one of his calmer moments. "Look in the face of the baby. ... Let them walk over this damn interstate and let them out of here!"
Distance from Superdome to Crescent City Bridge - 2.7 miles.
UPDATE:Distance to Convention Center - 0 miles
Exit to the Convention Center
From The Times-Picayune
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescnt City Connection.
Two paramedics stranded in New Orleans in the wake of hurricane Katrina give their account of self-organisation and abandonment in the disaster zone
As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.
We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there
was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.
ABC Nightline
NAGIN: I can't explain the response. And here's what else I can't explain: We are basically, almost surrounded by water. To the east, the bridge is out, you can't escape. Going west, you can't escape because the bridge is under water. We found one evacuation route, to walk across the Crescent City Connection, on the overpass, down Highway 90 to 310 to I10, to go get relief.
People got restless and there was overcrowding at the convention center. They asked us, "Is there any other option?" We said, "Well, if you want to walk, across the Crescent City Connection, there's buses coming, you may be able to find some relief." They started marching. At the parish line, the county line of Gretna, they were met with attack dogs and police officers with machine guns saying "You have to turn back..."
NBC4 - Long Beach Woman Trapped In New Orleans
"They told us to go to the Crescent City connection for buses, ready to pick us up," she said. "We walked over dangerous ground, past the convention center. We got up the ramp and (someone) started shooting."
Thursday Sept 1. from CNN
Nagin advised those gathered at the center to march over the Crescent City Connection bridge to the west bank of the Mississippi River to find relief in neighboring Jefferson Parish.
"The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies," said Nagin, adding that officials did not expect to have enough buses for evacuations.
UPDATE:
From the Nytimes:
Police in Suburbs Blocked Evacuees, Witnesses Report
Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds trying to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, two paramedics who were in the crowd said.
The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, the paramedics and two other witnesses said. The witnesses said they had been told by the New Orleans police to cross that same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.
Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.
From Kos diary by darrelPlant:
Exit to the Convention Center
UPDATE:
Dean: U.S. must face 'ugly truth' about Katrina
Tourists Realize They're Afterthought
First the federal government took the buses they had hired to evacuate them.
Then their hotels turned them out onto the desolate streets
They trudged for blocks to walk over a bridge, but officers wouldn't let them cross _ and fired a few warning shots over their heads to convince them.
UPDATE:
Fleeing Katrina, Finding Ukiah
"Once we arrived there, the mayor of Gretna, his police force, police chief ... they jumped out with M-16s and shotguns and told us to get out. We had kids terrified. They said we did not have permission to be in their city. They surrounded us, cocked their guns, told us not to move -- told us to gather together. ... Our superintendent tried to explain to them that we were waiting for buses and didn't need rations," Kevin said.
"And the bad thing about that is, (due to the flooding) that was the only way in and out of the city," Tony said.
UPDATE:
DKos diaries - :
Another NO Story from the inside
What REALLY happened in New Orleans: Denise Moore's story
Gretna Sheriff's Dept
Shocking Story in UPI
UPDATED from comments:
"This American Life" they featured an interview of out-of-towners (from San Francisco) who recount their horrifying attempts to leave New Orleans via this bridge. It pretty much is similar to what is being reported.
UPDATE:
UPI Story
Cops trapped survivors in New Orleans
UPDATE from comments:
radio interview of survivors
UPDATED from comments:
Now you can see the faces of the b@stards who were shooting.
UPDATED-9/11
The City of Gretna Police Department"
Chief Arthur S. Lawson, Jr
Mission:
The City of Gretna Police Department's mission is to prevent crime and maintain order while affording dignity and respect to all individuals; to protect lives and property while safe guarding constitutional guarantees, committed to the delivery of police services in the most efficient, fairest, responsive and ethical manner possible to impartially enforce all laws and ordinances, while enhancing the quality of life for all citizens through new and innovative approaches to problem solving and crime prevention; with a sensitivity to the priorities and needs of the people; and to promote professionalism and pride among employees of the City of Gretna Police Department.
Gretna is in Jefferson Parish (i.e. county), which has a sheriff's department. The Sheriff is Harry Lee.
UPDATE: Comment downstream
i'm from the westbank
i am glad that harry lee & lawson kept the new orleans people off the westbank. and i still feel that way knowing that i had a good friend trapped in the convention center. and knowing that i had other friends who were in chalmette under water. i don't think they should've taken anyone's supplies or chased them off the ponchartrain expressway high ground. but they were right to keep them off the bridge. yes, that bridge is in orleans parish, but the first exit splits into two branches. one puts you right into gretna, the other into algiers (orleans). because of this, the bridge isn't in orleans parish jurisdiction but a jurisdiction of it's own with it's own Crescent City Connection police, who were also there blocking access.
---snip---
and i'll tell you, westbankers don't like eastbankers. period. doesn't matter the race, or if it's east orleans or east jeff. we don't like the eastbank period.
UPDATE:
From Washington Monthly
[According to an eyewitness account from a pair of San Francisco paramedics who tried to leave the city], As they made their way to the bridge in order to leave the city "armed Gretna sheriffs (sic) formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads."
Members of the group nonetheless approached the police lines, and "questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge ... They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City.
"These were code words," the paramedics wrote, "for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."