3:34 P.M. – (AP) The evacuation of Superdome refugees was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt hotel. They were move to the head of the line to be evacuated — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome for days.
The 700 had been trapped in the Hyatt just like the others, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome.
3:14 P.M. – St. Bernard Parish officials say that FEMA has not called them yet…five days after the storm.
3:07 P.M. – BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — U.S. Sen. David Vitter said FEMA’s efforts to deal with the hurricane have been completely ineffective, and he called the federal government’s response a failure.
“I think FEMA has been completely dysfunctional and is completely overwhelmed, and I don’t know why. This situation was utterly predictable,” said Vitter, R-Metairie. “It seems like there was no coherent plan, which I don’t understand because this precise scenario has been predicted for 20 years,” he said.
2:54 P.M. – WWL Reporter Jonathan Betz says the refugees at I-10 and Causeway are standing in squalid conditions. He said there are only 10 portable toilets for thousands of people and the Interstate median is full of human waste.
2:50 P.M. – WWL-TV LIVE pictures show thousands still wait to be picked up from I-10 and Causeway. Buses arrived a few hours ago, but the refugees say that it’s the first sighting of buses in 12 hours. Some of the refugees have been waiting four days. State Police say five people died Thursday while waiting.
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