Rescuers find 76-year-old man in Big Easy

[kath]

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/national-51/112699194147261.xml&storylist=hurricane

Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters.

Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact.

"It's an incredible story of survival," said Louie Fernandez, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency search unit that carried out the rescue.

<snip>

Martin was the first trapped person found alive by Madden's California Task Force Three team IN ITS 12DAYS OF CALLING OUT TO HOMES FROM THE BOAT AND PEERING INTO WINDOWS <emphasis mine>

<MORE.>

[obxhead]

1. wow... just wow.

[54anickel]

2. They're NOT going into the homes to search? Sheesh, that might

keep the body count down a bit. They're peeking into windows on the ground floor while the flood waters had forced people into their attics.
Dontcha think a few bodies are going to get overlooked this way? :eyes:

[benburch]

4. These homes are still under water.

No way to enter the first floor, and the second floor is likely to collapse if you make entry.

[kath]

5. But the policy is that they can't break down doors/windows of ANY

home (on edit, unless they hear someone cry out), regardless of the water level. (See the story of the man who was ILLEGALLY rescued on Tuesday when they broke into the house:
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/09/14/sections/news/news/article_674836.php

And now it looks like this has apparently been the policy for at least the past 12 days.
This policy makes me outraged beyond words. It is in no @^@#$@! way an effective means of finding live people.

[54anickel]

7. "in no @^@#$@! way an effective means of finding live people"

It's even less effective for finding dead people - which is probably a big part of the objective. These neighborhoods will get bulldozed over, becoming a secret burial ground. They don't want to find and have to count the dead.

[kath]

8. Absolutely right - in my rage, I'm not expressing my self well. It's

an absofuckinlutely bullshit way to handle rescue OR body recovery.

Heads should roll because of this.

<edited for typo>

[kath]

9. Look at this, from Sept. EIGHTH - "Local Rescue Team Returns Home Early"

http://www.nbc11.com/news/4948994/detail.html

Local Rescue Team Returns Home Early

POSTED: 9:40 am PDT September 8, 2005
UPDATED: 10:05 am PDT September 8, 2005

A Bay Area Air National Guard wing is back from New Orleans more than a week earlier than expected. About a dozen members of the 129th Rescue Wing out of Moffett Field returned to Mountain View Wednesday night.
The group left for New Orleans on Monday and helped remove more than 200 people from their flooded homes. The team came home early because they say rescue efforts are winding down. One member says he wishes they had been sent sooner.
"We failed the people, the system failed the people. I wish we could've done something better - we could've done more, I guess. That's my only regret," said Senior Airman Mickey Chan. The unit sent medical teams and a chaplain to New Orleans.


***********
"Because rescue efforts are winding down"?!?! ON Sept 8?!?! WTF?!?!?
Shit, the Orange County rescue team (whose doc was the one who helped get an IV line into Mr. Hollingworth on Tuesday) wasn't even allowed to BEGIN its rescue work until Sept. 7 or 8. This was true for about **700** rescue personnel who were holed up in Dallas for DAYS because FEMA wouldn't let them into the disaster area. Others were stuck in Georgia - including the 50 firefighters who were assigned to be a backdrop for one of the Chimperor's photo-ops.

Then there's the Vancouver rescue team, who managed to sneak into New Orleans early, and got there 5 days before any US military. Then, even though they had food and water to be self-sufficient for TEN days, they were sent home early as soon as the Feds finally got there.

All these examples of impeding rescue efforts (and there are lots and lots and lots of them) need to be investigated BIG-TIME. Since there's probably not going to be any real govt. investigation, Michael Moore or someone ought to interview as many rescue crews as possible to find out details of all the bullshit that went on. I'd bet that rescuers are plenty pissed that they were not allowed to do the work they were trained to do in a timely fashion, **when people were still alive to be rescued**, or that their missions were cut short.

[Ruby Romaine]

11. here's another link about Mr. Hollingsworth's rescue- no login needed

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3353135

[genieroze]

12. That's bull, law enforcement have every right to break down a door in a

emergency. I would think it would include firefighters and rescue workers. It sounds like they are making excuses. I understand if it is to dangerous for the rescue workers, not wanting to go in.

[54anickel]

6. Nope, this guy came down to his kitchen on the 1st foor 2 days ago after

the water receded. They broke the front door in to get to him.

[benito]

3. it's hard to imagine this

for holding out for almost 2 weeks without giving up. The mental strength needed to stay positive, in that situation, for that long......

humbling.

[miss_kitty]

10. They don't want to find the dead

1) It'll make them look bad and
2) They'll be able to say it wasn't as bad as the dems running NO and LA said it was, that it was hyperbole.

[OneBlueSky]

13. three weeks after the event and they're STILL not doing . . .

house-to-house searches -- something that SHOULD have been done within three days of the hurricane, at the latest . . .

because they would have found hundreds, if not thousands, of people who will now be removed as bodies because of the malignant negligence of George W. Bush and his administration . . .

if this isn't a "high crime," I don't know what is . . .

[kath]

14. ANOTHER rescue team whose deployment was delayed:

S.D. rescue crew said languishing in Houston

6:48 p.m. September 4, 2005

SAN DIEGO – Authorities say they are speeding up relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but 80 San Diego firefighters and paramedics sent to the Gulf Coast are languishing in Houston, a fire official said Sunday. "We're there, we're ready, it's up to (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to decide where we're needed," said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire Department.


Earlier this week, about 100 firefighters, lifeguards trained in swift- water rescues, paramedics, a doctor and a structural engineer from the San Diego area were sent to assist emergency personnel in Louisiana, Luque said. The lifeguards – who left before the firefighters – were put to work immediately, saving dozens of people from flooded buildings in New Orleans, Luque said.

But the firefighters, doctor and structural engineer from the regional Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 8 were diverted to Houston to await further instructions, he said. As of early this afternoon, 80 urban search and rescue members from San Diego were still in Houston, awaiting further instructions, Luque

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050904-1848-katrina.html

(I've been doing some Googling tonight re: various search-and-rescue teams. I've already mentioned that huge numbers of rescuers were stuck in Dallas and Georgia hotels for days. Now it looks like god-knows-how-many others were stuck in Houston. Another story indicated that Task Force 3 from California was also stuck in Houston as of Sept. 4.)

[Jamastiene]

15. Katrina Survivor found. 76 year old man in his attic.

Here is a link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050918/ap_on_re_us/katrina_rescued_man_8;_ylt=AstHaZe5LMmUwRwtQAOQhClH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--