Hurricane Katrina Evacuees

[xerox78]

Houston Chronicle: School bus comandeered by renegade refugees first to arrive at Astrodome

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The first busload of New Orleans refugees to reach the Reliant Astrodome overnight was a group of people who commandeered a school bus in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and drove to Houston looking for shelter.

Jabbar Gibson, 20, said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city.

Gibson drove the bus from the flooded Crescent City, picking up stranded people, some of them infants, along the way. Some of those on board had been in the Superdome, among those who were supposed to be evacuated to Houston on more than 400 buses Wednesday and today. They couldn't wait.

The group of mostly teenagers and young adults pooled what little money they had to buy diapers for the babies and fuel for the bus.

After arriving at the Astrodome at about 10:30 p.m., however, they initially were refused entry by Reliant officials who said the aging landmark was reserved for the 23,000 people being evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

"Now, we don't have nowhere to go," Gibson said. "We heard the Astrodome was open for people from New Orleans. We ain't ate right, we ain't slept right. They don't want to give us no help. They don't want to let us in."

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It's amazing how George W. Bush and Congress will race back to Washington for the sake of keeping a woman with a liquefied brain on life support and pushing their pro-life/anti-abortion agendas yet when it comes to hurricane survivors trapped on the roofs of their homes and living and dying in literal third-world conditions, it's "We'll decide what to do when we get off vacation." I guess one's life only has "sanctity" when they are a certain color or have a certain amount of money.

When I think about the fact that Bush cut funding to protect New Orleans by strengthening the oil levees so that the money could go toward his false war in Iraq....

I'd like to post this photo I saw on the Black Voices forums:

Comments

[story645.livejournal.com]

word to the little boy, and to everything you said.

[bana05.livejournal.com]

When it's black people, who the fuck cares, right? Kat-girl has gotten rid of thousands of Negros . . . why would the government be in a rush to save them--especially when most of these people are on government rolls because they are poor (which is why they're still in NO and not on higher ground like the people who could afford to leave).

More money for Iraq!1111!!11

This is like a get out of jail for free card, isn't it?

Pft.

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

Yep. The fact that they are poor and mostly black is killing two birds with one stone. (excuse the pun) The authorities might feel obligated to save the Clampetts (pre-Beverly Hills) or the Huxtables, but not the Evanses.

[heron-advocate.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'll keep my political views (or lack thereof) out of it. BUT OMG at the racist thing. Who wrote it, anyway?

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

I don't know who made it up. I found it on the Black Voices forums. I've seen several versions of the two pictures w/captions, but none with the little boy.