Australia
Anita Quigley
Daily Telegraph
The Australian tourists who endured hell in the New Orleans Superdome have only themselves to blame, said Anita Quigley in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. It was totally “irresponsible” of those dozen or so Aussies to stay in the city after a state of emergency had been declared. As tourists, they surely had the means—credit cards or traveler’s checks—to get transport out of there ahead of Hurricane Katrina. But instead, these backpackers wanted to tough it out so they would have “another great holiday story of ‘When I Survived the Hurricane.’” That was their own choice. Now to be “whingeing about being abandoned by the Australian government” is “outrageously passing the buck.” Of course it was going to be terrible to be stuck in the city. That’s why the New Orleans government told everyone to evacuate. “The U.S. authorities had their hands full dealing—albeit badly—with their own people to rescue. They didn’t need to add a bunch of stupid Australian holidaymakers to the equation.”
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