By Stefan Morkis

A BROUGHTY Ferry man who was trapped in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina tore apart the city has told of his desperate battle for survival.

Norrie Culross (49) was trapped in a hotel last weekend as 140 mph winds pounded the building, causing its windows to implode and ripping apart much of the structure.

It was not until Thursday, after fearing that he might die in the chaos and seeing bodies piled up in the city’s airport, that he finally escaped to safety in Dallas.

Mr Culross, who returned to Scotland on Saturday, said yesterday, “I’m delighted to be back in Scotland. I was sure that Sunday was my last—I was certain that was it.

“When the hurricane struck, we were told to evacuate our rooms in the hotel and lie down in the corridors close to the centre of the building as that was deemed the safest place.

“Water was pouring down the inside walls of the lobby and the suspended ceilings were falling in. Outside there were mini-tornadoes and torrential rain. I have no idea how any living thing could have survived without protection or shelter.

“All the bedroom doors in the corridor were shuddering and trembling in their frames. It was as if all the rooms were suddenly packed with demons all trying to get out.

“I was curled up in a corner next to the emergency stairwell and had to move away from the thunderous noise booming in the stairwell. The air pressure was physically felt.

“Parts of the hotel were being ripped off with ease and being blasted away. The walls were trembling and you could feel them flexing under the strain of the storm trying to force its way in.

“The main feeling amongst people was fear—not knowing what was going to come next because when Katrina hit there was every likelihood there could be another one just behind it.

“The noise was deafening and I could hear residents screaming and crying.”

After surviving in the hotel for two days, Mr Culross and other residents were evacuated, but not before seeing first-hand the destruction Katrina had left in her wake.

Mr Culross said that there was “utter devastation” and that heavy equipment from the gym had been pushed across the floor as though made of paper.

Outside the hotel, the situation was worse, with trucks overturned on the road and Mr Culross even saw a tree that had been uprooted and driven through the wall of a building.

Mr Culross and his fellow hotel guests were finally evacuated on Wednesday and taken to an airport hotel where they were told that buses would be coming to take them out of the area.

While waiting there, he went into the airport itself, hoping to book himself on a flight out of the city.

“The scene was incredible—there were thousands of people taking shelter and being given basic medical aid,” he said.

“There were dead bodies of victims on the floor, which I think had been brought in by helicopters.”

Unfortunately for Mr Culross, when the buses arrived, they had just boarded when they were told to get off as the vehicles were being sent to the Superdome instead, where thousands of people had sought refuge.

Mr Culross said, “Finally, they sent another bus, but it was only one.

“They put the women and children on first, then people who had been injured. There were just 11 seats left.

“By that point, I didn’t care what happened to anybody else—I had to get out of there and get on that bus. If I hadn’t, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

Mr Culross arrived in Dallas 10 hours later and had reached the end of his ordeal.

After living off scraps for days in a drowning city, to suddenly find himself in such luxurious surroundings was a surreal experience.

“When I was in the hotel room I felt like a king, I had everything back I was used to,” he said. “I lay in the bath for so long I had to keep adding more hot water as it cooled. I could hear CNN on the TV from the bathroom and listened to the horrors of what was happening as lawlessness took over the city.”

Now reunited with his wife Elena and his five-year-old son Alexander in Broughty Ferry, he is able to reflect on his escape.

“It’s painful to go back—I saw so much tragedy, there were people you just couldn’t help. It has changed me— material things aren’t so important. When your life is in danger it doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank.”

Mr Culross was only in New Orleans because he had been unable to complete his work as an engineering consultant for an oil company in July because of two other hurricanes. He will be returning to Louisiana next week to continue his work.

“Hurricane season ends in October, so hopefully there will be no more,” he said.

“It’s not really funny but sometimes I feel like a cat with nine lives.

“I worked on Piper Alpha but was on leave when that happened, and I was in New York airspace on 9/11 and got stuck in Toronto for five days because of it, and then there were hurricanes Dennis and Emily last month.”