Sent in rescue team
HURRICANE KATRINA It went to find Canadians, even in the face of gunfire, looting and threats caused by flooding, downed wires
Re Stranded without help in New Orleans Nov. 14.
Iread with interest Ian Harvey’s piece on the three women trapped in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the recognition given to Robert Milton and Air Canada in getting these three women safely back home.
While I also acknowledge and commend Milton, Duncan Dee, and Air Canada for assisting in the transport of some Katrinastranded Canadians out of New Orleans, I am compelled to add a few more details to Harvey’s story.
Foreign Affairs Canada, my office and I were very much aware of the predicament that Josie LoBianco, Marianne Hurley and Sara Coppa were in, including the concern about getting medication to one of the women. We were in contact with their families throughout the ordeal. I know that every effort was made to find and evacuate these women — including an aborted helicopter rescue that had to be abandoned when it came under fire a day earlier when they were at their hotel. We then assembled a rescue team to get into the city and get them out — along with any other Canadians we knew of — even though reliable information as to where Canadians were located was sketchy at best. Our rescue team’s efforts, however, were a step behind the movements of the three women after they decided to leave the hotel due to their deteriorating situation.
Local authorities gave limited assistance to foreign rescue teams. In fact, the authorities were not sanctioning independent rescue operations in the city core — even though some media had no trouble gaining access to stranded people. While local authorities called the shots and had their own evacuation plans, as was their right, none of the difficulties dissuaded us from getting a team to go in and find Canadians — even in the face of gunfire, looting and the threats caused by floodwaters and downed hydro wires.
Nonetheless, this was a disaster zone in every stretch of the imagination.
While I am indeed grateful to Air Canada for its help in the evacuation of Canadians, I must stress the overall situation on the ground made rescue attempts very difficult.
That is why I continue to urge all Canadians planning foreign travel, whether to hurricane regions or to other countries prone to natural disasters or civil unrest, to stay in contact with family, register their visits with the nearest Canadian mission and be aware of just what can happen — as it did in one of the wealthiest and technologically advanced countries in the world. Dan McTeague, MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs with Special Responsibility for Canadians Abroad, Ottawa