Free Republic

Texas is suffering a major disaster due to Hurricane Harvey and countless people are volunteering and donating. The Cajun Navy in particular, has done wonderful work: One volunteer rescuer with the Cajun Navy, identified only by his first name, Brandon, told local ABC Houston station KTRK-TV that he came from Hammond, Louisiana, in order to assist with the rescue efforts, adding that he hopes to "give back." "Because Louisiana has always had its fair share of hurricanes and everybody has always showed up for us, so it’s time to give back," Brandon said. "The Cajun Navy, they pretty much step...

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) -- Authorities found a shivering toddler clinging to the body of her drowned mother in a rain-swollen canal in Southeast Texas after the woman tried to carry her child to safety from Harvey's floods. Capt. Brad Penisson of the fire-rescue department in Beaumont said the woman's vehicle got stuck Tuesday afternoon in the flooded parking lot of an office park just off Interstate 10. Squalls from Harvey were pounding Beaumont with up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain an hour at the time with 38 mph (60 kph) gusts, according to the National Weather Service. Penisson...

a time such as this, you want the guys who can still thread a line when their hands are wet and cold. They’re descending on Houston in their fleets of flat-bottomed aluminum boats, the sport fishermen and duck hunters outnumbering the government rescuers by the hundreds, their skiffs sitting low in the floodwaters with their human catch in the back, clutching plastic-wrapped possessions. The country is suddenly grateful for this “Cajun Navy,” for their know-how, for the fact that they can read a submerged log in the water, and haul their boats over tree stumps and levees and launch them...

Members of the Cajun Navy volunteer groups are stepping up to assist flood-stricken residents, as people bound for Texas post on Facebook that help is on the way. Although unofficial and organized through several online groups, the Cajun Navy is comprised of grassroots volunteers who came to be known by a collective name after the Louisiana Flood of 2016 prompted hundreds of leisure boat owners to band together and perform search and rescue operations.

Meet Logan Anderson, a former staffer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She’s been triggered by this boat with a Confederate flag on it rescuing people in Houston: She then tweeted she’d let the hero rescue her, but then take his flag: I would absolutely get on that boat, by the way. And then, when they dropped me off, I'd tear off the flag and drop it into the flood.

Caked in mud and covered with bug bites, a shivering group of six friends from the Quad-Cities huddled together in the dark this past Sunday, stranded in the woods of northeast Iowa.

A MASSIVE search is underway after a Marine Corps aircraft crashed off the coast of Australia. Military officials said in a statement an MV-22 crashed off the east coast of Australia. It’s unclear how many service members were on board.

Incredible new video out of Fresno was shot when a masked robber used a fake gun and a knife to threaten a Starbucks clerk. It happened on Thursday. Fifty-eight-year-old customer Cregg Jerri grabbed a chair, walked up behind the robber and smashed it over his head. The two started fighting, according to investigators. Jerri was stabbed in the neck during the struggle but managed to wrestle away the knife and stab the robber several times. “It was incredibly heroic and the way most people would think that they would respond but may not have the courage to respond,” said Chief...

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- In a concerted effort from July 7, and into the early hours of July 8, 2017, approximately 80 Airmen and four aircraft assigned to the 920th Rescue Wing successfully rescued two German citizens whose vessel caught fire approximately 500 nautical miles off the east coast of southern Florida. At the request of the Coast Guard's Seventh District in Miami, the 920th RQW was alerted by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, to assist in the long-range search and rescue. “The rescue was a culmination of skill and teamwork...

A dog in Long Island, New York jumped into the Long Island Sound, the body of water between Connecticut and Long Island, to rescue a young deer stuck in the water. “Storm just plunged into the water and started swimming out to the fawn, grabbed it by the neck, and started swimming to shore,” the dog’s owner, Mark Freeley, told CBS New York.

Chaminda Walakuluge said the navy mounted the 12-hour rescue after spotting the elephant struggling to stay afloat around eight kilometres (five miles) off the island's northeast coast. Divers aided by wildlife officials approached the distressed animal and tied ropes to it before towing it gently to shallow waters near the coast, where it was released late on Tuesday. Walakuluge said the animal had likely got swept into the sea while crossing the Kokkilai lagoon, a large stretch of water that lies between two areas of jungle. "They usually wade through shallow waters or even swim across to take a short...

When Jessica and Derek Simmons first saw the beachgoers pausing to stare toward the water, the young couple just assumed someone had spotted a shark. It was the evening of July 8, after all, peak summer season in Panama City Beach for overheated Florida tourists to cross paths with curious marine life. Then they noticed flashing lights by the boardwalk, a police truck on the sand and nearly a dozen bobbing heads about 100 yards beyond the beach, crying desperately for help. Six members of a single family - four adults and two young boys - and four other swimmers...

A family friend of little Charlie Gard joined Nigel Farage on his LBC radio show Thursday in a final attempt to save the terminally ill 10-month-old baby. As the state-approved "doomsday clock" moved closer to midnight for Charlie, Maria Tatalovic pleaded for President Trump to intervene and keep the baby alive. “President Trump, I never thought I would actually direct a message to you but please save this baby,” Maria said. “We just need him to be released, transferred and receive treatment which will be paid for. We’re not asking for anyone to treat [Charlie] who doesn’t want to." “It’s...

Maria Tatalovic sent an urgent message to U.S. President Donald Trump to talk with British doctors and lawmakers on behalf of baby Charlie Gard whose family wants to seek treatment for his condition in the United States. Ms Tatalovic appeared on former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s LBC radio programme pleading with the American president to help intervene in the case of baby Charlie Gard who will have his life support removed Friday. “President Trump, I never thought I would actually direct a message to you, but please save this baby,” she said. “We just need him to be released, transferred...

Dave Eubank says he knew the odds were against him. "ISIS fire was intense as we approached the huddled group of three survivors," Eubank recalled. On June 1st, Eubank, an ex-US Army Special Forces soldier, who runs a Christian humanitarian organization called Free Burma Rangers, got a call from an Iraqi unit that was fighting ISIS on the frontlines west of Mosul, Iraq. "They said civilians coming, a lot (of them) shot," Eubank told CNN. He and members of the Free Burma Rangers are in Iraq helping civilians flee from ISIS-held areas. The team jumped into action after they got...

David Eubank rescues girl clinging to dead mother

An Illinois man risked his life to assist a driver suffering from a seizure. Before the motorist could injure himself or others, Randy Tompkins jumped into the man’s vehicle — and it was all caught on a police cruiser’s dash-mounted camera.

A body camera belonging to a police officer showed him diving into a pond to rescue a four year old child with autism from drowning. This event transpired a little over 24 hours ago in Topeka, Kansas. The policeman is Aaron Bulmer, who happened to be patrolling around the Central Park Community Center. He then noticed the young boy venturing a little too closely to the pond. Officer Bulmer was walking towards the child when the four-year-old fell into the pond. Bulmer’s body camera then records him fearlessly leaping into the water to rescue the boy. In a world where...

<p>This is the dramatic moment a father and his two young children were rescued from their overturned truck as rapidly rising floodwaters surrounded the vehicle.</p> <p>Phillip Ocheltree, 25, of Wills Point, Texas, was driving home with his two kids in the backseat after tornadoes ripped the state on Saturday, when he says his truck 'hydroplaned off the highway.'</p>

<p>Aya Hijazi, 30, and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, an Egyptian, returned to the Washington area Thursday. She met Friday with Trump in the Oval Office.</p> <p>Trump had hosted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi at the White House at the beginning of this month. The two leaders discussed the case at the time.</p>