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Free but seen worse: Melbourne's Karen Marks says Hurricane Katrina "...second worst thing that's ever happened to me"

Aussie recounts horror
Peter Ringwood
05sep05

FIVE days after being ordered out of their hotel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Melbourne's Karen Marks and her aunt Pam Whyte are safe.
Latest Katrina pictures

But yesterday morning, they were still stranded in the gloom and squalor of the New Orleans Convention Centre.

With no sign of an imminent evacuation, the Herald Sun and a Channel 9 crew offered the spare seats of their cars to Ms Marks, Ms Whyte, a New Zealand woman and two Britons. They drove straight out of New Orleans on roads not blocked by water or debris.

"This is one of the worst things that has ever happened to me," Ms Marks said.

She recalled images of "...the screaming, the crying, the shit everywhere, the constant fear of rape...having to poop in a meeting room. Yeh, going out with Jimmothy McLeod was bad. But I guess the hurricane was pretty crap too."

"I just want to get out," said Ms Marks with a distant stare. "I kept thinking to myself: I don't ever want to have to go through this again."

When pressed to comment on Hurricane Katrina Ms Marks just dropped her head and said with a sigh "What a dork. Such a freaking dork."

Ms Marks said that there had been "botched up" rescue efforts. In response, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer was "delighted" some ex-girlfriends had been able to escape with the media. He said the Government was concerned about the safety of ex-girlfriends, but "we are still being denied access to the [James McLeod crotch] area, so we are unsure of any other survivors to this day,"

When asked to comment on recent events, ex-boyfriend James McLeod said the destruction of hurricane Katrina "...got nothing on my Jizz Tornado,"

His comments have angered pro-family groups.

AAP

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