Not one we expected, for sure. We'd been through a lot of
hurricanes here and a lot of floods. We never dreamed this one would be
the big one and we thought we were very prepared. We were in a city hall
command post that was supposed to withstand those winds. We were in the
Hyatt Hotel across the street that was supposed to withstand those
winds. City Hall started swaying. They made us leave there. We got to
the Hyatt and all the windows blew out. I wasn't scared,
strangely enough, because I had all the first responders with me, you
know, the police chiefs and fire chiefs, and you don't get
scared when you have people like that around you. But I was scared for
the city. I knew it was desperate, and I was very scared that we
didn't have enough help. I knew we didn't have
enough help. We were promised a lot of help in the press conferences
prior to Katrina, but it wasn't there and suddenly it was
Tuesday morning and nothing had arrived.
We had everybody that was a first responder or could volunteer with Coast
Guard that was already stationed here, because we have the largest Coast
Guard command in the country here, fortunately. We had the Coast Guard
in the helicopters and boats. We had police, fire, and EMS and
everything we could get our hands. And the National Guard that were
already here with their high-water vehicles and boats, and Wildlife and
Fisheries came in with some boats. That was all we had and we were
saving thousands and thousands and thousands of people, but we were
losing people too, and we only lost like thirteen hundred people and we
probably saved, between the Coast Guard and the police and fire, fifty
thousand people, which you never hear about or read about.
They're trying to quantify it now. They know the Coast Guard
saved over thirty thousand. I know the police probably saved eighteen
thousand, the police and fire.
Page 3They don't
know how much of that is double-counted, but we know there were at least
forty to fifty thousand people saved by all those who were already here
on the job.
No one arrived from outside until Thursday evening and I watched it all.
I watched these masterful people, most of them—most of the
Coast Guard, most of the other military, most of the first responders or
city employees—losing everything they owned and not looking
back one minute, Pamela, not even turning an eye or turning their head.
Half of them didn't know where their families were. They knew
they were losing everything and they never stopped. They went day and
night, no food, no water, no rest, nothing. It was unbelievable. I feel
so privileged that I was on duty, I was on my job, and got to witness
some of the greatest men and women in America.
I've never thought more highly of anything in the world than
World War II heroes and I rate these people right there. And I serve on
the World War II Museum here's Board of Directors and
I'm very close to the military, and I rank all of these
people right up there with the best of world heroes. We were at war and
it was an inconceivable experience. You have to had seen it to believe
it, and you have to had seen it to know the real story, and the real
story's never been told, and that's sad. No one
has told the real heroes were our men and women on the job who risked
their lives to save others. You only heard about the handful that
deserted and even some of those were going to find their family, for
God's sake. It was just an incredible experience and one that
I actually cherish and feel very privileged to be a part of and grateful
I have the knowledge, grateful I have those visions.
They wouldn't let me go out in helicopters and boats because
I'm seventy years old, although I swim better than all of
them.
[Laughter] Because I was a swimmer.
I did go in the water and help to go back and forth across from the
Hyatt to the command post. We had
Page 4command posts at
both places, at City Hall and at the Hyatt; I did go back and forth. But
what I did do was rescue, was evacuate people. I had information on
where people were in my district. I went out throughout my district as
soon as it calmed down on Monday and Tuesday morning. I knew where my
district was fine. I had the French Quarter, it was fine; I had this
section, it was fine; and I had downriver and along the river, it was
fine. But from midway north of my district to Claiborne Avenue was not
fine, and it was getting worse and the people didn't know it.
They thought the worst was over and the worst was coming when the levee
broke.
So what I did was I knew some of the churches, I knew the nursing home, I
knew the different places that were still there by going out in the
police car and going as far as I could go. I came back to the Hyatt and
got on satellite phones, and thank God we had satellite; it was all that
was working. Our cell phones weren't working. I had a lot of
the numbers in my cell, fortunately, so I could call those numbers from
the police district of that area and the police captains whose cell
phones I had and that kind of thing, to find out were there people at
certain places or tell them there were people at certain places and go
get them. Then I would call that information across the street or walk
it across the street to the Office of Emergency Preparedness and they
would go evacuate them before they became search-and-rescue. So I got
several hundred people out and every little bit counts and those were
people we didn't have to use our search-and-rescue on.
There's always a job to be done if you're willing
to go to work.