Via Boing Boing I learned of this BBC news report entitled "Survivors reveal Superdome horror". Chilling, and deeply upsetting, but essential reading if we are to be reminded of how close we are to decending into chaos, no matter how "civilized" we think we are as a people.
"One guy jumped off a balcony," said Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer who was beaten and injured during his time at the Superdome. "I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave."
"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told the Reuters news agency before he left on Sunday. A body lies face down in water next to the Superdome Death was everywhere, both inside and outside the Superdome "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. "And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them. "He jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead," Mr Banka said.
Another man died in mysterious circumstances on Friday as a police car passed the New Orleans Convention Center, where equally squalid conditions forced many to sleep outside among streets full of rubbish. More than 24 hours later, his body, like so many others, had not been moved. "Right where he fell," Larry Martin told the Los Angeles Times. "Like roadkill."
"We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom. Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death."
-cvj
