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Storm survivors must show breasts for rescue Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/storm-survivors-told-expose-themselves.htmlhttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/storm-survivors-told-expose-themselves.html
Storm Survivors Told To 'Expose Themselves'
Tuesday September 6, 03:28 PM
A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused.
The account was just another example of the horror stories emerging from the hurricane disaster zone.
Mr Scott, 36, of Liverpool, was with his wife and seven-year-old daughter in the Ramada Hotel when the flood waters started rising.
"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts," he told the Liverpool Evening Echo.
"When the girls refused, they said `Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."
At one point he had to wade through filthy water to barricade the hotel doors against looters.
He said the experience made him want to vomit.
Mr Scott also slated the rescue operation, saying police were more interested in taking snapshots of the devastation rather than rescuing the victims.
"I could not have a lower opinion of the authorities, from the police officers on the street right up to George Bush," he said.
"I couldn't describe how bad the authorities were. Just little things like taking photographs of us, as we are standing on the roof waving for help, for their own little snapshot albums"
He added: "The American people saved us. I wish I could say the same for the American authorities."
Mike Brocken, of Chester, said he feared his wife Christine and 18-year-old daughter Stephanie would be raped when they went into the Louisiana Superdome.
The family were also racially abused by other refugees in the stadium.
Mr Brocken, a BBC Radio Merseyside presenter and music lecturer, told the station: "We were going to go inside the Superdome.
"I approached two members of the National Guard and they said to stay outside because they knew it was hell in there.
"One female office basically said under no circumstances take the women in there, because she knew what it was like.
"We were so frightened and we stayed alongside the National Guard for some kind of protection.
"It was at that stage that they started to take us under their wing and eventually managed to get us into the basketball stadium."
He added: "Everyone talks about the National Guard in rather derogatory ways historically, but I've got to say that, but for them, and one man in particular, I may well have lost my family."
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