Ferry Arrives In Malta, With Americans Aboard
The New York Times reports:
VALLETTA, Malta — After a two-day wait in the Tripoli harbor followed by a rough eight-hour crossing, more than 300 evacuees from Libya landed here on Friday night on a high-speed ferry chartered by the United States government.
As they wheeled their dusty suitcases into a ferry terminal in this storied Mediterranean port, tired passengers recounted days of fear as scattered demonstrations turned into chaotic violence, and exhaled with relief at being on dry land.
“It feels great to be here,” said Keith Diebold, a petroleum engineer from Missouri, looking ebullient as he and his fellow passengers emerged from the terminal and into the eye of dozens of waiting television cameras.
The United States hired the ferry Maria Dolores after commercial flights from Tripoli could not keep up with demand. The Tripoli airport was overwhelmed, with as many as 10,000 people waiting to leave the country, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
But the catamaran ferry remained docked in the Tripoli harbor for two days until rough waters and winds subsided enough for it to depart.
“It was a terrible crossing with very big waves,” said Tammi Shreve, from Florida, who teaches at the American School in Tripoli. But she said that the passengers had rallied and stuck together, and that the United States Embassy had taken good care of them.
“It wasn’t scary, it’s just that a lot of people were sick,” she said.
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