They came for the inauguration but got stuck in a tunnel

"It was painful to people who had a bad experience," Gainer said. "But I think it went very well for about 240,000 people with tickets and about 1.7 million people on the Mall. Obviously, it did not go well for between 1,000 and 4,000, and I feel bad about that, but on balance, one couldn't conclude anything but that this was a pretty well-run operation. . . . We did a good job on about 98% of this."

Elected officials who were responsible for disbursing tickets heard from unhappy constituents and began pressing for answers.

In a letter to Feinstein, Maryland Democrat Rep. Chris Van Hollen wrote that he was "baffled by the breakdown, on such a broad scale, of the processing of people who followed the rules and came only to see, hear and be part of this remarkable moment in our nation's history."

Florman, the inauguration committee spokeswoman, said attempts would be made to compensate people for the foul-up. "This won't make it up to people," she said, "but we are working on a plan to provide people who had this terrible day some commemorative materials."

She said that would probably include invitations, programs and a color photo of Obama taking the oath of office. How the committee expects people to prove they were shut out is unclear. "We have to come up with something that is workable," Florman said, "but doesn't allow just anybody to say, 'Hey, I was one of them.' "

Natalie Baack, 27, works for an entertainment market research company. The Palms resident was with a friend and her friend's 60-year-old mother. When they finally made their way out of the tunnel, and even hopped a fence, they ended up in front of the Canadian Embassy. She was so distraught, she was weeping as she craned her neck to see a television at the embassy.

"I was just crying and crying at this point," Baack said. "A woman took my picture, and I asked her to delete it. She said, 'I want to capture the moment.' Then I told her why I was crying, and she felt awful."

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this report.