From ABC
News Australia
Hurricane refuge like a ‘concentration
camp’The New Orleans Superdome was meant to be a hurricane refuge, but those
who sought shelter there have described it as a lawless, squalid
“concentration camp” where two children were reportedly raped and other
refugees terrorised by rioters.Thousands are still waiting to be transferred by bus to Houston, Texas,
their relief at finally leaving the stadium mixed with outrage at their
treatment.“The last few days were utter hell,” said Baron Duncan, 42, one of many
thousands who sought protection in the giant sports arena when Hurricane
Katrina hit the US Gulf Coast.For some, the four days without proper food, water, sanitation and nights
of lawless blackout had clearly taken a heavy physical and mental toll.Many broke down in tears, while others just lay prostrate on the ground,
too exhausted to move, as National Guardsmen, police and medical personnel
carried infants, the elderly and the sick to air-conditioned buses.One 13-year veteran of the New Orleans police force said he and many
fellow officers who had been at the Superdome since Sunday were equally
outraged at what they saw as a lack of preparation that allowed the
situation in the covered stadium to deteriorate so badly and so quickly.“This city knew something like this would happen a long time ago,” said
the officer who asked not to be identified.They did nothing to prepare for this. They just rolled the dice and hoped
for the best.”“People were raped in there. People were killed in there. We had multiple
riots,” he said, adding there was no way to police the ad hoc community of
up to 20,000 people suddenly thrown together in such a confined space and
such horrific conditions.“You can’t be trapped in there for so long without going crazy. People
were locked in the dome like prisoners,” he said.“There was no ventilation. We had 80 to 90-year-old people who needed
medication and couldn’t get it.”According to Mr Duncan, the nights inside the arena were the worst, with
the pitch darkness and debilitating humidity accentuating the rank smell
from backed up toilets.“The stench was unbearable. We were treated like animals,” he said.
“There was shooting, our lives were in danger. A seven-year-old girl and
an eight-year-old boy got raped.”Norma Blanco Johnson, waiting for a bus with her daughter and infant
granddaughter, said her main concern was her three sons, who she had not
seen since before the hurricane hit.“I don’t know what happened to them,” Ms Johnson said, adding that her
anxiety and fear had only been multiplied by the experience of sheltering in
the Superdome.“This was no way to treat a human being. I lost everything and then I
went through hell. I have no place left. I have nowhere to go and all I have
are these,” she said, pointing to her soiled clothes.Audrey Jordan vented her anger at New Orleans officials, saying they had
known for years that a hurricane of Katrina’s intensity could cause a breach
in the low-lying city’s water defences.“They wanted to pay millions of dollars to rebuild a stadium, but they
couldn’t even fix the levee,” Ms Jordan said.“We were treated like this was a concentration camp,” she said of the
Superdome.“One man couldn’t take it. He jumped over the railing and died.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has set up a hotline for
Australians worried about family and friends in the region.
The title of this article alone should put a disturbing feel into any citizen
of this nation. On the other side of the globe, we are now viewed as treating
our refugee’s by placing them in “concentration camps”. In a video clip
available on the article
link, the
reporter says this is shocking coming from the richest country on the planet.