Disaster tourists pose dilemma for emergency ops | 07.02.2007 | 08:08:00 | Views: 5877 | ID: July 2 '07: The San Francisco Chronicle reported that along with resident evacuations and the dangerous conditions created by the wildfires in the Lake Tahoe area - emergency managers and firefighters are having to contend with "disaster tourists" - people who sneak into the disaster areas to watch the response. The Chronicle reported, "Sheriff's officials who have been working neighborhood checkpoints say they have run into out-of-towners trying to sneak into burned areas. A volunteer at one checkpoint told The Chronicle that carloads of gawkers have pretended to be news reporters in hopes of getting in to see the destruction. They were turned away." Other incidents in California such as the "1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Oakland hills fire in 1991, and the Loma Prieta quake in 1989" have attracted onlookers - The Chronicle reported. The problem with people coming to look at the disaster is that they put themselves and those who are trying to respond in danger, officials say. In New Orleans "voluntourists" came after the hurricane devastated the city to help rebuild while they watched the disaster unfold. And in New York after the attacks on 9/11, a viewing platform was built near ground zero because so many people came to Manhattan to watch the debris removal.
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