Another Katrina story, this time courtesy of the ABC here in Australia. You can quickly get overwhelmed by the thought of 20,000 people descending into Lord of the Flies survivalism in a sports stadium or convention centre, but the second story on ABC News here in Queensland tonight brought it down to a personal level.
It was about everyday citizens, getting in their boats in suburban New Orleans, not part of any official recovery party, and helping out their neighbours. Some people who wanted to stay in their houses they gave supplies to, some people they evacuated, some people they chopped open the roofs to let them out of the attic. The reporter was saying that there was the smell of death from all the bodies that are in the houses and floating in the streets.
The bit that got my heart in my throat and my eyes a tad wet though was that the guys had rescued two people, one a university professor with his dog, the other a woman with a stray cat whom she had adopted. When the boys let the rescued two off on relatively dry land, the woman was crying but thanking them profusely, and her and the professor wandered off in a daze onto whatever happened next.
Bringing it down to the personal level is always more heartbreaking than overwhelming statistics. Even though when we do get a death toll, it will be very very bad. Cities all over the US are opening their shelters to let refugees in - refugees is a strange word to use for US citizens, but it is the most appropriate one.
And now am kicking myself for not getting the civilian rescue boat guy's name, and I haven't been able to find a link on the ABC site yet, because that was one of the best stories I have seen from the Gulf Coast all week. Maybe I should email the ABC or something, get further details.
Paul
It was about everyday citizens, getting in their boats in suburban New Orleans, not part of any official recovery party, and helping out their neighbours. Some people who wanted to stay in their houses they gave supplies to, some people they evacuated, some people they chopped open the roofs to let them out of the attic. The reporter was saying that there was the smell of death from all the bodies that are in the houses and floating in the streets.
The bit that got my heart in my throat and my eyes a tad wet though was that the guys had rescued two people, one a university professor with his dog, the other a woman with a stray cat whom she had adopted. When the boys let the rescued two off on relatively dry land, the woman was crying but thanking them profusely, and her and the professor wandered off in a daze onto whatever happened next.
Bringing it down to the personal level is always more heartbreaking than overwhelming statistics. Even though when we do get a death toll, it will be very very bad. Cities all over the US are opening their shelters to let refugees in - refugees is a strange word to use for US citizens, but it is the most appropriate one.
And now am kicking myself for not getting the civilian rescue boat guy's name, and I haven't been able to find a link on the ABC site yet, because that was one of the best stories I have seen from the Gulf Coast all week. Maybe I should email the ABC or something, get further details.
Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment