hmmm. spread this. a rumor

Someone -- grace? Brian? spread this to the media please.
They locked out the people out of the dome, evacuees and volunteers. we have not had volunteers able to come in all morning. people just screaming broke into the gate to get in and all the people and volunteers ran into the dome. hundreds, at least 200 or 300 people started pushing in. no one was on the other side of the locked gate, no traffic no guards, etc. my volunteer guy telling the story from the human rights campaign ran in too. finally one police officer tried to corral people and push them back out. and in ffact everyone was pushed out. except my guy who pretended he had been in all along. and the people who had been in were pushed out and locked out.

rumors: Bush is here or coming here any minute. and/or, FEMA is giving out debit cards and people got very rowdy and so fema locked everything down mega tight.

No reliant empolyees, no one , no officers, no one to ask, people screaming and panicking, locked out of what is now their home, their kids are in here, etc. no one in the dome knows what is happening

Comments

[Reagen Ward]

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/weather/090805_katrina_debitcards.html

Are you sure it wasn't just a temporary closing to handle the chaos from the debit cards you mentioned?

[anonymous]

Appauling. What is this now? A police state?

[OJ]

You guys are all a bunch of tabloid hyping, Bush bashing freaks... If you instead focused your effort on donations and actual aid, perhaps we could all get through this together...
I like the ABC story posted! Seems a little more rational!

Here (see link) is the actual truth about what happened with the disaster relief in the wake of the hurricane. Sorry - no conspiracy story for you to print in your tabloid!

http://www.rightviews.com/article.php?id=321

[Fred]

OMG they locked it down, it's a Bush concentration camp! The gas will start soon get out fast while you can OMFG nooooooooooooooo!

Where is my tin foil hat, oh no I lost it nooooooooooo.

[doombilly]

I like how the ditto heads like to believe in Bush's "Rolling up his sleeves and going ta work" bullcrap. If by "going to work" you mean partying down in San Diego...

[whump]

Calling TNH, we need the disemboweling plug-in.

[minnie]

well uh. she IS there giving aid. thus, the info straight from the astrodome.

[whump]

Oh, I mean the disemVoweling plug in.

No actual trolls were harmed in this comment. As much as I'd like to.

[A. P. Duncan]

That is not true ... there is a curfew at the Astrodome starting at 11:00pm and that is normal OP in a situation like the one we are facing.

There is a line to get the debit cards but there is no panic whatsoever nor chaos.

[crapper]

Read this story of the nature of the "help" provided by the National Guard.
http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_18337.shtml

[Kevin]

Dear AP,

This is not a 11PM curfew. This is a sudden lock down, this morning. Apparently conservatives can't read. ;-)

[maryrose]

Hey you made Boing Boing!

[Melanie]

What part of this don't you understand, OJ, AP, etc.? She is there, she's experiencing it first hand. How can you dismiss it?

[Jo]

A flurry of trolling! You've hit a nerve!

It seems to make them very, very twitchy when someone does what you have done, which is to put your life on hold for a week, get yourself to Houston, and help in the best way you know how. Money where your mouth is, in other words...

[GraceD]

badger, i emailed brian to alert him to this breaking news. he emailed back and wants to do a phone interview. he's been trying to get through to you via cell. i forwarded that email to you and jo spangle just in case you two connect.

looks like boing boing is bringing in the wingnuts

[dogooder]

According to Bush, the citizens displaced by the flood are better off in the shelter. Se story for quote.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/barbara2.asp

[rio]

youre amazing to be there, im amazed, its all so inconceiveable from over here

[Melanie]

Just saw on CNN that there was a lockdown today due to the debit card handout from FEMA and Red Cross - It DID happen, and people didn't like it.

[Ms. Jane]

Why are these trolls so invested in remaining so blind, compassionless, and mean? How could this possibly benefit them?

[Melanie]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/07/news.update/index.html

Down near the middle of the page.

[badgerbag]

Rumors are still flying! I'm only reporting what people are saying. all sort of authority type people spread it to me about bush, then it was the vouchers, then cheney, then vouchers again. Still I have no idea what was going on. All I know is, for some reason from around 9:30 or 10am this morning no one was allowed in , i had people in my face crying and freaking that their husband or wife or kid was outside and couldn't get in and didn't have any water. and then at 2pm I finally got some volunteers and they had been in the sun outside the gates for several hours and were very frustrated, and many volunteers were turned away or could not get here because highway traffic was diverted. Within the dome, everything was calm, except for the people who were upset they could not get their loved ones back in. I gave one guy my volunteer armband so he could pass it to his wife through the bars. That was melodrama for you. The reason it is melodramatic is that things often happen fast witihout warning or explanation, such as, suddenly you are told at 9pm that everyone is being moved, and they load you onto buses, and maybe you get separated and end up in Dallas.

continental airlines has been super great and is giving people free plane tickets to anywhere, totally free, if they have a fema number. they rock. they got a whole bank of computers in there that was there at 7am , maybe it was t here yesterday but i only heard of it this morning. lots of people are using them.

[badgerbag]

Also cani just add that my bank of volunteers that came in at 2pm, i could just cry they are so good. they rock. they are working so hard and are so caring and never turn people away or give them the runaround. and Marc eggleton is a total superhero! and i should mention everyone! but i can't. and also, major, major props to Byron Martin, who is a survivor and looking for his dad-inlaw Gus Romain. Byron even in the middle of his difficulty, so clear headed, smart, common sense, helping all the other people around him with utter unselfishness, helping me during the really chaotic time when i should have been helping him. I'm talking about people waiting in line to give us their info, and him just noticing, getting up, and starting to write down all their data and interview them. Wow he's awesome and someone give that man a job.

Byron Martin for president, y'all.

[GraceD]

Badger's Texan's accent is resurfacing!

[badgerbag]

okay 2 more min before i go back into it... I did not expect such attention... it was a rumor, folks!

[webmeister]

This whole debacle and the response from conservatives, especially the hardcore conservatives, just goes to show how blindly they follow Bush. It doesn't matter how badly his Administration screws this up, he will never be to blame. It's always someone else's fault. So much for accountability.

[MelanieTM]

Badger, I don't know which part you are saying is a rumor - from CNN:

Debit card confusion sparks lockdown at Astrodome area

HOUSTON (CNN) -- Long lines and confusion over the distribution of two separate debit cards to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina sparked a lockdown Thursday at Reliant Park, where more than 8,000 evacuees from hurricane-affected regions are living temporarily.

People began lining up at 5 a.m. (6 a.m. ET) around the Astrodome, where computer-printed signs indicated they could receive Red Cross debit cards. Many had heard that FEMA was also passing out debit cards worth $2,000 for those who qualified.

As word spread, others began flooding the complex, prompting police to shut the gates to the parking lot and refuse entry to everyone but emergency medical personnel."

[badgerbag]

That's so dumb, actually. Over 10,000 people left the dome and the complex in the last few days. DUH, they came back to check their FEMA status!!! Because the FEMA people themselves told me that their phone lines centrally, in the u.s. I mean, their national phone lines were swamped and they had people on hold for hours. 4 fema guys were begging me to get part of the comp center to start processing fema appliacations. Despite that I was told by them earlier that day that if we filled out a fema application for anyone, we were violating the law. heh heh.

Since when did people lining up and maybe a yelling altercation or a fistfight cause an enormous lockdown. People line up overnight and fight for CONCERT TICKETS for fuck's sake. Why they had to halt the infrastructure of the entire area including shutting down highway exits, I cannot imagine it cause by anything other than FEMA's panic, and I will add racism to that equation as far as their expectation that there will be a riot any second. And that panic made other people feel very uneasy to put it mildly. the volunteers I was working with, some of them were worried they would not be able to leave the building and get to their cars. And you know what happened then: they started trying to leave.

I can't stress enough that the people in the dome, the survivors or evacuees whatever you call them, people are getting along, they are focused on finding their families and friends, figure out what they should do next, everything is really so orderly and calm, polite and kind, it's almost eerie. People say "good morning" so heartfelt everyone to each other, total strangers, just glad to be alive, and not in the hell of the superdome or the overpass or the rooftops. There is no riot or mass disturbance. There are always a few tweakers in any crowd.

[Carl Guderian]

The Astrodome seemed to be running well enough until now. If Bush or Cheney turn up, the security (and PR) detail will stomp all over a staff that can barely do their jobs as it is. Judging by the way they tied up resources elsewhere, it's better that they stay well away from where anything useful is being done.

The panic lockdown was stupid, and the kind of thing that can send the Astrodome the way of the Superdome. Not even embedded Fox reporters could fix that.

[JSJS]

IT IS A SHOW OF FORCE. AND TO LET EVERY ONE KNOW WHO IS BOSS. ALSO THAT IS THE WAY YOU TREAT ANNIMALS.
YOU KNOW ISRAEL NEVER OFFERED ANY AID TO AMERICA. BUT WE THE TAX-PAYERS ARE SENDING THEM BILLIONS EVERY YEAR, AS TRIBUTE.--ALL BECAUSE OF DUAL CITIZENS.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IS PROTEST THAT NO DUAL CITIZEN SHOULD HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE.

[BOOKMAN]

They Lock you out after hours but they dont keep you in. you could still walk out.. but you wont be let in until 5am....

It just so happens that i was locked out last night .. its somwehere in my blog too ....go see..

[badgerbag]

Bookman if you're reading this, i heard they are moving everyone OUT of the dome tonight. I didn't have a time on that. And it was a rumor. Moving into the Reliant Arena. (I hope that is not true, and that it is the Reliant CENTER instead because that is closer.) Also the domeblog for the chronicle said that the Arena has some game or event planned for the 18th.

[debi]

I was in the Astrodome on the 8th, all day long and it was not as crazy as some of you make it sound. We had plenty of volunteers and more came in after the confusion was straightened out. Yes there was a lock down but I could leave if I wanted. It was the debit card confusiion, that's all.

[badgerbag]

I'm glad it wasn't as crazy for you, Debi! Were you a resident or a volunteer? I had some volunteers able to move around freely, at certain entrances - especially with a Red Cross badge. Others could not get in (though they could get out) and they'd go around to every entrance and try elsewhere...until they found someone who'd let them in.

Where I was and the areas right around me, there were several very upset evacuees who had relatives outside who couldn't get in. And before I knew the situation I was trying to send people out to other buildings (i.e. to get services in the Reliant Center) and they were then locked out of both buildings. I might have been able to leave depending on what door I was going out. But, the people guarding the entrances didn't always know WHY they were or what the lockdown was about. At the gates, the situation was quite chaotic and tense at various times throughout the day.

The police, the military, etc. So many people were saying it was because Bush was coming. Later in the day everyone said that we all knew all along that it was the FEMA voucher lineup and some kind of fistfight...(??) Then that it was a fema overreaction.

Information and the way it looked were very different depending on exactly where you were and who you were talking to... And that was very true of almost anything, the whole time I was there, everything changed very fast.

[Juno888]

It was the debit card confusiion, that's all.