He Held Their Lives in His Tiny Hands

LA Times online ^ | September 5, 2005 | By Ellen Barry,

[guitarnick40]

BATON ROUGE, La. — In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans. In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding.

Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.

[LucyJo]

It is an awesome thing to see prayers being answered, and the providence of God in action.

[ladiesview61]

That's exactly right. The children have a natural instinct to survive and are showing great resilience. They haven't been corrupted yet by the welfare system in this country, which is designed to keep them dependent and forces them to eventually lose any self respect and perseverance. You can thank the liberal black leaders of this country for that.

[dawn53]

IMHO, the kids, especially the smaller ones, will handle it better than adults because they don't understand the gravity of the situation.

To a child, it's like a big adventure, and they don't understand their parents are now homeless and jobless.

[goldstategop]

I too am an orphan now - and I feel for the children. God hears the anguish of orphans and will see to it they lack nothing because of faith in Him.

[Mike Darancette]

Deamonte Love

How cool is that name?

[Mike Darancette]

1.25 million people over two roads in less than 48 hours.

That part seemed to work well.

As to to L.A. Basin. No reverse flow only 4 good routes out in 2 days it would be "Lord of the Flies".

[malia]

to your--

"OK so now we've got a 6 year old who was more resourceful and smarter than the frikin mayor."

Both the Governor and the Mayor lack leadership!

[TomGuy]

Heroes don't have time to wait for the Mayor to decide what to do.

Heroes don't have time to wait for the Governor to decide when to act.

a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Add Deamonte Love to the list of heroes.

===

My hero is a bus thief - Houston Chronicle (Priceless Photo)
Houston Chronicle ^ | Sept. 1, 2005, 10:29PM | By RICK CASEY

Posted on 09/04/2005 12:39:33 PM CDT by joinedafterattack

"When he arrived at the Astrodome about 10 p.m. Wednesday, 20-year-old Jabbar Gibson modestly confessed that he had commandeered a school bus in New Orleans, then picked up about 70 passengers before heading out for the 13-hour trek to Houston." <!-- DIV.b2 { margin: .75em 0px; } -->

Jabbar Gibson rescues NO citizens on 8-31-05

[twntaipan]

It sure would have been good if that could have occurred before Katrina hit. Hindsight is 20/20, I know. But had the plans NO had actually been followed, more people would have been evacuated and more would have survived.

[Kurt_Hectic]

thanks for the great post! It was moving

[Coldwater Creek]

He probably was used to haveing to take care of his family.

[Coldwater Creek]

The kids have not been exposed to the race and welfare pimps yet, they are just sweet normal little childen.

[Coldwater Creek]

State and local government????????????

[guitarnick40]

YVW and happy labor day to you and all

[rimtop56]

The story is very touching, but I'd still like to know how the helicopter crew lost all seven of them.

[libertylover]

That's a great picture! The old woman thinks she's taking care of the little girl and the little girl thinks she's helping the old woman.

[libertylover]

You know, in spite of the horrors, there is so much hope, here, so much bravery, goodness, and decency, on display, in the middle of this disaster.

Yes, and Fox seems to be focused on that. At times I switch over to MSNBC or CNN but they're full of hatred, "Let's hate Bush; let's hate the FEMA director, etc...". It's disgusting.

[YankeeGirl]

And the Governor was ------

An idiot, just like the mayor?

[libertylover]

How would Your Local Government have done?

Probably not any better is the short answer.

However, there are some differences, albeit easier to see in hindsight. As everyone now knows, New Orleans lies below sea level. I've know for years that NOLA was subject to complete flooding, though I thought the Mississippi changing course at Long-named-river would be the cause. But surely a category 5 storm approaching should have invoked the worst case scenario plans to evacuate the city, and "Orders" were giving and, as you point out, over a million people responded to the "word to the wise". But the mayor and other local officials, who are closest to their own (poor) residents, should have had a better plan. The worst case plans should have including using the school buses and transit buses and trains to move people to an area above sea level. That IMHO is the failure of the local officials.

[Smokin' Joe]

It is a pity they had to throw this tired crap into the article :

But fears that the refugees will become an uncivil mob at the Astrodome are overblown. The concerns were, inevitably, tinged with race and class perceptions. The pictures we see from the Superdome are of people who are mostly poor and black.

After the MSM has spent so much time focusing on looting, violence, rape, and shooting, carefully constructing an image of all the people there in NOLA as criminals, is it any wonder folks would be concerned? Sheesh!

Until people stop, take a deep breeath, and realize that the majority of crime is perpetrated by a minority of the people, (and the MSM ditch the race/class crap), there will be a reaction ranging from an undercurrent of suspicion to complete antipathy toward these people.

The MSM continues to do a disservice to the people of New Orleans.