PORTSMOUTH — The bus company that provided shuttle services for Friday's speech by President Barack Obama is blaming Obama's state-level campaign for a delay that forced thousands to wait two hours or more for a ride back to their cars.

Timothy Stokes, spokesman for the bus service, First Student Inc., said the contract with the campaign was set up “awhile ago” and the times they were given for pickup were between 4 and 7 p.m. Friday. He said the campaign told the company earlier Friday that it wanted to move the pickup time to 2 p.m.

“By the time we had heard that they wanted to change, our drivers were already in the process of transporting students” from communities outside Portsmouth, Stokes said. “If we knew about this ahead of time, if it had been 2 o'clock we were told, we never would have been able to accommodate them.”

The shuttle service was to take people to Strawbery Banke from the air terminal parking lot at Pease International Tradeport in the morning, and return them in the afternoon.

When Obama's speech ended about 1:15 p.m. Friday, people lined up for school buses that were not there. After 2 p.m., an Obama campaign staff member, who would only identify himself by the name Mike, told those in line that the buses were delayed and indicated that the bus service had committed its buses to something else.

The first bus didn't arrive until shortly after 3 p.m.

Asked for a response as to whether the campaign was responsible for the delay, the campaign released only this statement from Pete Kavanaugh, director for Obama's campaign in New Hampshire: “We apologize for the unexpected inconvenience for today's event attendees. We thank the Portsmouth community for its patience while we addressed the situation.”

During the wait, campaign staff and volunteers provided people with water and snacks. Several campaign staff members used their personal cars to shuttle people to the air terminal while others brought some chairs for people to sit on.

The wait was difficult for some, as emergency medical technicians remained busy helping people who became dizzy from dehydration. Several ambulances were seen leaving the area of Pleasant Street, where a line of thousands of people stretched from Junkins Avenue to Manning Street.

Izzy Demello, who is from Sudbury, Mass., and is attending the University of New Hampshire in Durham, had to be taken away in one of those ambulances after suffering from dehydration.

“It's my own fault,” she said before EMTs arrived. “I haven't eaten anything all day.”

Dot Descoteaux of Rochester, who talked to Demello and provided her water to keep her alert until EMTs arrived, said she wouldn't have minded the wait had it not been for Friday's temperatures, which were in the mid 80s.

“But being 80 years old, and sitting down in this doesn't quite cut the mustard,” Descoteaux said. “But I'm glad I came and I still would come.”

But the delay angered Demello's friend, Jen Tavernini of Windham, and others who waited.

“I don't really know why the organizational skills for this are so bad,” she said. “It doesn't make sense, considering there's 7,000 people that they need to track back. I don't get why there's a delay when the schools are closed.”

“There should have better organization for this event with thousands of people attending,” said Linsey Moore of Milford.

“Why weren't they reserved for the whole day?” said Moore's friend, Alex Shimpkin, also of Milford.

tbuckland@unionleader.com
Gretyle Macalaster also contributed to this report.