In this passage what does eventide mean

Britons who felt "deserted" by embassy staff during hurricane katrina received an apology from prime minister tony blair today. blair was reacting to complaints by survivors of katrina that the response to their situation had been painfully inadequate. blair apologized, but assured survivors of the hurricane that they had not been deserted. in fact, blair said, embassy staff had been working "day and night" in an attempt to reach britons trapped in a new orleans superdome stadium. which best states the purpose of this article excerpt? to inform readers about blair's apology to persuade readers not to blame british diplomats to explain to readers why britons were "deserted" to convince readers to british survivors