Hotel Manager Disputes Key Hurricane Katrina Details Told By Brian Williams

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, speaks at the Women's Conference Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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The hotel manager for the Ritz Carlton at which Brian Williams stayed while covering Hurricane Katrina recently cast doubt on some of the stories he told about his time in New Orleans after the storm.

Some of Williams statements about what he witnessed in New Orleans were called into question after the NBC News anchor admitted last week to telling a bogus story about his coverage of the Iraq War.

During a 2006 interview, Williams said that he saw a dead body float past his hotel in the French Quarter.

However, according to hotel manager Myra DeGersdorff, there was not much flooding near her hotel in the French Quarter, making it unlikely that the newsman saw a floating body.

“Maybe he was out there, and it wasn’t impossible he could have encountered a body, but I don’t think it was in the French Quarter,” DeGersdorff told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday.

“I can tell you that at no time did any of my people report any sightings of any bodies,” she added. “I witnessed no bodies floating.”

DeGersdorff, who the Post said won a company award for her work running the hotel during the storm, also cast doubt on comments Williams made during a 2014 interview. Williams said the hotel was “overrun with gangs,” which she indicated was an exaggeration.

“There absolutely was looting in the French Quarter,” she told the Post. “But I wouldn’t say they were gangs. … They were primarily individual looters or two or three buddies attempting to break into camera stores; it was unpleasant.”

DeGersdorff said that one or two looters did once “breach a door,” but were quickly chased out.

She also addressed Williams’ claim that he “became very sick with dysentery” after swallowing some flood water.

DeGersdorff told the newspaper she doesn’t recall any of her guests coming down with the infection.

The hotel manager said that Williams may have “misremembered.”

“I’m not going to judge him, because it was such an unpleasant week and there were times to be concerned,” she told the newspaper. “And when there is that kind of concern, you can misremember.”

But she maintained that the Ritz Carlton was safe, well-stocked with medicine, and guarded by numerous police officers.

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Notable Replies

  1. Translation: how dare Brian Williams cast any doubt on the sanctity and safety afforded by such an elitist establishment as the Ritz Carlton? We had cops ready, willing, and able to shoot on sight. Next disaster, count on us to save your ass – at a price.

  2. "cast doubt "

    You guys need to do a better job of this. She cast doubt on nothing. She essentially admitted to having no personal knowledge and then said “nuh uh.” That does not “cast doubt” on anything. It’s simply her engaging in supposition, speculation and conjecture.

  3. Myra sure as good eyesight, being in Baton Rouge and all.

  4. “But she maintained that the Ritz Carlton was safe, well-stocked with medicine, and guarded by numerous police officers.”

    Right…it’s also zombie proof and ready for the zombie apocalypse. She was just spewing self-serving twaddle.

  5. I’m sorry, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Williams provided no proof that his hotel was overrun by gangs, or that he had his life saved by a cop; and frankly, his story sounds fake. Just click through to the link and read all the absurd things Williams was saying, about how street gangs were waiting right outside the hotel “ready to smash and grab.” Sounds like a bunch of hokum to me. There were lots of these fake stories that came out during and after Katrina, and all they did was perpetuate the stereotype that black people are animals who can’t be controlled. But in fact, it was the white people who did more harm, by killing innocent people and preventing them from leaving New Orleans.

    And really, why is anyone defending this actor? He’s not a journalist. He’s a handsome man that reads news from a teleprompter. And if this forces him out of his job, then he’ll be replaced by another attractive person who reads the same news he’d have read. And while I’ll admit that Williams was funny on 30 Rock, I’ve never cared for him as a “journalist.”

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