I wish I could claim to be surprised:
At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since last Sunday.
"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard locked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.
The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, next to the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.
(Via Body and Soul.)
Update: I've been reading in the comments on various blogs, but still can't find a concrete link, that Mayor Nagin needed to set up operations in the Hyatt, and so moved the guests out. But you know, that still doesn't explain why they weren't required to get in line at the Superdome like everyone else. From a triage standpoint, I can't figure this out. The same article linked above talks about women in the Superdome miscarrying. The hotel guests, according to the article, just weren't in as bad a shape as the Superdome folks. So I still haven't seen a rational explanation. Does anyone have a link?
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