The Cajun Navy

When Gautreaux arrived at the Acadiana Mall in the early hours of Wednesday morning he was stunned by what he saw. The Mall parking lot was filled with boats and trucks of all shapes and sizes and hundreds of people willing to help rescue their fellow Louisiana citizens.

"The great thing about it was it was typical Louisiana," says Gautreaux. "We had doctors, lawyers, college students, nurses, working class people, and offshore oilfield workers who had the day off because of the hurricane. We even had a person who bought a brand new boat and motor that day so he could go with us. I thought that was great. It's part of our Cajun heritage to help our neighbor. When New Orleans needed help we were there to help them."

Participants in Gautreaux's citizen flotilla came from all around South Louisiana: Ville Platte, Lake Charles, Abbeville, Erath, New Iberia, Maurice, Carencro, Jennings, and Opelousas, just to name a few. Eyewitness estimates put the number of boats between 300 and 500, and the number of volunteers at 600 to 800. By all accounts, hundreds of volunteers showed up to help with hundreds of boats.

Although Gautreaux was quite pleased with the turn out, he had a stern warning to deliver to his enthusiastic volunteers who were eager to get going. Standing next to a Vermilion Parish sheriff department squad car with a bullhorn in hand Gautreaux had this to say to the volunteers, "This is the deal. If you're afraid to see death, don't come. If you're afraid to see a dead body floating in the water, don't come. If you're afraid to be shot at, don't come. If you're not used to the smell of death, don't come with us."

Recalling the scene Gautreaux says, "I warned them. And not one person turned around to leave."
(Jefferson Hennessy...Associated Content)

Nick Gautreaux

They've been called the "Cajun Navy"-- A group of Southwest Louisiana civilians who helped rescue people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina brought on the desperate situation-- the levies in New Orleans had failed and people everywhere were stranded. Governor Kathleen Blanco called on civilian volunteers she knew. Lake Charles business woman Sara Roberts was one of them. "The governor was very desperate and called upon people that she knew who had the resources. To those that much is given much is expected."

The term "Cajun Navy" was coined by Doug Brinkley doing research for his book the great deluge. In Lake Charles a group quickly mobilized and headed to the disaster area to help rescue people. "We had probably 23 vessels and we had I'd say probably close to 30 people." Roberts credits her friend, contractor Ronny Lovett with making it happen. "I called Ronny immediately and he said, 'Give me a couple of hours. I'm going to Sam's and I'm getting the supplies we need and we'll have our convoy. And we convoyed to New Orleans. He is really the hero."

They saw death and human suffering beyond their imaginations. The experience pushed everyone to the limit physically, mentally and emotionally. Yet Roberts says it was gratifying beyond words. "To me, going in and pulling people out of the water was just the right thing to do. It was our responsibility as citizens, Louisianans."

September 22, 2006
By Theresa Schmidt
KPLCtv.com


In the hours immediately following Hurricane Katrina's devastating assault on New Orleans with violent category three winds, unprecedented tidal surges, and lethal floodwaters, millions of Americans watched the alarming scene on television in dismay. This story is about the hundreds of first responder volunteers who could not watch the suffering of their fellow citizens without offering their assistance.
From the last day of the storm on Monday, August 28 to Sunday, September 4, 2005, these south Louisiana citizen volunteers worked tirelessly to save stranded New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish floodwater victims, and brought them safely to dry land. These first responders who brought their boats and risked their lives in the service of stranded flood victims have come to be known as the "Cajun Navy."

Lets Take A Bunny Break and Have A Monday Mantra

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey

This is Riley bun. One of Heartland's resident sweethearts.

A Man and His Dog

The video is fuzzy so I do apologize. Nate says "I am not doing this for the camera" I dont care if he did or didnt. Listen close. The man is sobbing with relief that someone is going to take care of his only family...his dog of 14 years.

Little Heroes

West Nile Virus was huge concern after the storm. All that standing water left people vulnerable to mosquitoes. An unexpected group of rescuers showed up.

Unbeknownst to most of the first responders was the fact that New Orleans had an ally in its fight against mosquito-born disease.

Female dragonflies lay their eggs (nymphs) in water or on floating plants. After Katrina their eggs were deposited in the floodwater. The aquatic larvae hatched. From then on, they started devouring mosquitoes, dive-bombing them with aerial acrobatics that made the Coast Guard helicopters look clumsy by comparison.

Sometimes when a corpse was found floating around the streets of New Orleans, washed up against a chain-link fence or concrete wall, dragonflies hovered around the victim. Never did the dragonflies touch the flesh, hunting instead for the maggots and fleas and mosquitoes, drawn to protect Katrina's victims just as they did its survivors.

(The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley)

Just Watch

Try not to form an opinion about anyone or anything you see. Try and forget the way you might already think about this crisis and look at it like its the first time you have seen it. Just ask yourself...."What if that were me?" (and I mean about every person you see here, the people, the cops, the troops, even the president) "What if that were me?" What would you have done?

Propaganda

Racial violence?
Wonder which store she looted to get these fine shoes

There was looting during Katrina but it was on a much smaller scale than the media led you to believe. Nobody was "raping babies in the Superdome" (The National Guard was in the the Superdome before Katrina hit and they suffered right along with the folks inside and did not allow this to go on.)

"They are shooting at rescue helicopters".......Not one shot was reported by the Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries or the Coast Guard (the very first government agencies on the scene...Thank You!) These folks didnt wait for orders or a plan. They just started rescuing.



"Why didnt those people evacuate?"



There was no plan to deal with the elderly, the disabled, and Memorial Hospital was completely forgotten about for days.



"Seniors were trembling all alone, left behind by careless family members on the absurd assumption that they'd be okay. Many of them died in terrified solitude-no white-suited nurse holding their trembling hands, no nun telling them God was near. Just a mad rush of sewage water, filling up their lungs, snuffing them out with cruel vengeance. The oxygen tanks emptied and, after that, in some cases there wasnt even a soul around to witness their last breath. One can only pray that they were in a coma or unconscious at the grim time of reckoning." (Doug Brinkley, The Great Deluge)

The Big Easy

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
This was my view 9 1/2 years ago when I visited NOLA. Beautiful isn't it? It still is.

I am going to attempt this again. I don't know if I will be able to finish. 9 1/2 years ago was my last trip to New Orleans. I was there to sprinkle my brother's ashes in Lake Pontchartrain (as were his final wishes). I haven't been back yet. One day I want his son to see the city that his dad loved so much. I have only been relieved twice in my life that my brother was dead. The first was in those days and weeks following The Bitch that was Katrina.

I hope you will follow along with me. I want to show you pictures that not everyone saw and I will try not to show anything too graphic. I will share excerpts from the best book (in my opinion) written about Katrina.
The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley

I want people to remember what happened there....so we may never leave another American city to rot.

That was enough for the Louisiana SPCA, which brooked no discussion and no debate: with the announcement that a major hurricane was on the way, the preset plan went into motion. (The Great Deluge, DB)

263 dog and cats and a few other species were evacuated from the shelter on Japonica Street. It was incredible. No discussion or debate?

No such plan was in place for St. Rita's Nursing Home. The animal shelter had a well organized plan but St. Hell's nursing home let 35 drown. I cannot let go of my anger at this. There are no excuses for not having a plan for the most helpless among us.