[ SHOWGSD-L ] An Inspiring News Story
- From: "MARGERY GOLANT" <mgolant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 23:14:59 -0400
While not per se dog related, the aftermath of Katrina is on everyone's
mind. I thought the below really interesting, and heartening....
Margy Golant
Rescuers Find 76-Year-Old Man in Big Easy By DAVID CRARY and ROSE HANSON,
Associated Press Writers
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.
In recent days, search crews have been finding corpses by the dozens in the
still-flooded neighborhoods of New Orleans, but not trapped survivors. The
FEMA search-and-rescue boat navigating through the Eighth Ward didn't expect
to find anyone alive at 6010 Painters St., but they planned to search the
premises of a one-story wood house.
As the motor idled and the boat glided forward, they heard a voice.
"Hey, over here."
Using a sledgehammer, a FEMA rescuer broke down the front door and went
inside with another team member, struggling through a living room jumbled
with overturned, sodden furniture.
They found Martin sitting in a chair in the sludge-covered kitchen,
partially undressed in an effort to keep cool. After 16 days in his attic,
he had descended to the ground floor two days earlier when the floodwaters -
once up to the ceiling - finally drained, even though the house remained
surrounded by several feet of water.
Incredibly, Martin - who ran out of his gallon-and-a-half water supply on
Thursday - was able to walk out of the house with just a bit of assistance.
"He was weak, very tired, but he was able to speak, able to stand,"
Fernandez said. "He was very relieved. He was very thirsty. He was in good
spirits."
Martin was given water to drink, then taken to Ochsner Foundation Hospital,
where nurse Jinny Resor said he was treated for dehydration. She said Martin
had taken medication while he was trapped, but she wasn't sure what it was
for.
In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press late Friday night,
Martin said he was feeling fine.
"So far, so good," he said.
As for his ordeal, his description was concise: "I was living in the attic
for 16 days, and I was living off water."
The two rescuers who retrieved him are firefighters with a California-based
FEMA team - J.D. Madden of Santa Clara and Eric Mijangos of Menlo Park.
"I don't know how much longer he could have went on without water," said
Madden, 29.
Martin's family left before the storm, but he stayed to attend church, later
took a nap and woke up to find that his home was filling with water, Madden
said.
Martin only had time to grab some water and get to his attic, which he
described as feeling like an oven during day-after-day of mid-90-degree heat
that followed the storm. Madden said the heat in the attic might have been
even worse, perhaps fatal, except for shade provided by a fallen tree.
Staff Sgt. Jason Randor, a military police officer with the Massachusetts
National Guard, watched the rescue from another boat that was helping
provide security for the search team. He recalled jubilant yells from the
firefighters when they realized someone alive was inside.
Martin emerged, wearing jeans and a shirt.
"While they were putting him in the chopper, he asked if they could stop on
the way at Taco Bell to get something to eat," Randor said.
Fernandez, of FEMA, was on scene when Martin arrived at a FEMA base camp
before going to the hospital.
"He had lost a lot of weight," Fernandez said. "He definitely had to hold
his pants up with his hands."
Martin was the first trapped person found alive by Madden's California Task
Force Three team in its 12 days of calling out to homes from the boat and
peering into windows.
"We've been in the rescue mode the whole time and haven't given up hope that
there was someone out there alive," he said.
But officials overseeing the search effort said the discovery of corpses and
the dwindling number of rescues has been taking an emotional toll on search
units.
"Our squad members are getting access to trauma and grief counselors," said
FEMA rescue squad liaison Charles Hood. "It's becoming a very difficult
task."
Fernandez said Saturday that Martin's rescue was a welcome morale boost for
his colleagues.
"Little victories like we saw yesterday help motivate people, who are facing
one of the toughest jobs they've ever faced," he said.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rose Hanson in
Baton Rouge and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans.
-------------
Margery Golant
mgolant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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