The Superdome

The Superdome during Katrina

Background Information:
New Orleans experienced a category 3 hurricane on August 29th 2005. The storm completely destroyed the levee sytem that was setup along the Mississippi river to prevent any overflows. These broken levees let in large amounts of water from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain flow through the city causing major flooding. Mayor Ray Naggin ordered an evacuation of the cities's residents for the incoming the storm. Consiering the vast poverty level, citizens had nowhere else to go so they waded out the storm in their homes. Not only did some people not have enough money to go elsewhere but some people decided that condisering Hurricane Ivan's false alarm, decided to avoid the constant warnings. Search and rescue teams brought in people from stranded rooftops and attics and escorted them to the Super Dome.

Who was at the Super Dome?
There were around 20000 to 25000 people using the Dome as refuge.
The coast guard/military were there at the Super Dome in charge of the food and water distribution. Mainly poor people from the city were at the superdome. They could not afford hotels or any type of other housing so they stayed in the super dome.

What were the conditions like?
Conditions were overall horrible throughout the Dome. The toilets were overused and unable to flush, creating terrible bathroom conditions. The proper medical needs for special needs patients were not substantial enough, resulting in people having to move for their medical needs. Sleeping conditions were not organized and people were forced into the stadium seats for water protection.

Why was it so horrible?
The conditions were so horrible mainly because the idea of using the superdome was rushed and not well thought out. Things went wrong such as the bathrooms malfunctioning and food not being there in time and medicines not always being provided.

How did citizens get to the Dome and how long did they stay?
FEMA and National Guard and military and cops escorted people into the Dome since there was no official form of transportation. The time of stay for people varied depending on their needs. Special needs and patients were forced elsewhere early. The rest of the people were forced to move to the Astrodome in Houston by Saturday September 3rd, due to the conditions in the dome, so around 5 days people stayed.

Tamer El-Ghobashy's story of the Super Dome
Tamer is interviewed by Amy Goodman and he basically explained who he thinks was in charge and his take on the food and water situation and other problems in the Dome.

"AMY GOODMAN: What sense do you have of who is in charge at the Superdome?

TAMER EL-GHOBASHY: From what I can see and what I can tell, it appears as though the Army is in charge. I'm not sure if the efforts are being coordinated by the State Office of Emergency Management here, or the National Guard or what.

It's very difficult to know who is in charge, and very difficult to get anyone from the officials to speak with you. Somewhat understandably, their priority, as it should be, is to help these people and get them out of there. They're having a hard enough time doing that." __(http://www.alternet.org/katrina/24990/live_from_the_superdome/?page=2)__

Here, Tamer talks about the problems with the food and water distribution.

"AMY GOODMAN: What sense do you have of who is in charge at the Superdome?

TAMER EL-GHOBASHY: From what I can see and what I can tell, it appears as though the Army is in charge. I'm not sure if the efforts are being coordinated by the State Office of Emergency Management here, or the National Guard or what.

It's very difficult to know who is in charge, and very difficult to get anyone from the officials to speak with you. Somewhat understandably, their priority, as it should be, is to help these people and get them out of there. They're having a hard enough time doing that." __(http://www.alternet.org/katrina/24990/live_from_the_superdome/?page=2)__

Lastly, Tamer explains how he got to the Super Dome.

"AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe how you got into New Orleans yesterday?

TAMER EL-GHOBASHY: Yesterday we got into New Orleans by trying our best to circumvent the various police checkpoints along the main interstate and the surrounding larger arteries. With the help of some local folks, we were able to use back roads that were at that point unmanned by police.

Having no Internet and phone in New Orleans, we are forced to go back to Baton Rouge in order to transmit our reports and our pictures. I'm with a photographer by the name of Michael Appleton, but today we got in. They had — the back roads were manned. They were only letting in emergency vehicles, according to them. We found a way by doing something rather unadvisable, but we got here." __(http://www.alternet.org/katrina/24990/live_from_the_superdome/?page=2)__

Sources
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175611/
http://www.nola.com/katrina/superdome/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167653,00.html
http://www.alternet.org/katrina/24990/live_from_the_superdome/?page=2

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License