U.S. Evacuation Gets Off to Stuttering Start

[Fleshdancer]

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-evacuate18jul18,0,4382034.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Waiting around Beirut with bags packed and fingers crossed, U.S. citizens derided the embassy for busy phone lines, an exasperating lack of information, and gnawing uncertainty over when and whether they will get out. Hundreds were expected to be shipped to Cyprus Tuesday, but how long the full evacuation will take remains uncertain.

"I had heard it might take a week, two weeks. You hear so many things," said Pamela Pattie, a 65-year-old professor. "Why in the world aren't we getting it together?"

The frustration has been intensified by news that other countries have already pulled many citizens out of Lebanon, efficiently and free of cost. A ferry chartered by the French government carried some 800 French citizens and several dozen Americans to Cyprus Monday, for example.

Other nations have packed their citizens into rented tour buses and spirited them over the mountains to Syria. But the State Department has warned Americans against traveling to Syria.