Richard Austin: We had to Help those Folks

Richard Austin and his two friends: Louis Lazard 27 and Jerry Bastion 18, spent 48 hours paddling a stolen boat around the streets of New Orleans. Mr Austin and his motley crew, who survived mostly on chocolate bars; saved more than 100 people from the flooded waters looking out mainly for the elderly.

The key rules were simple: 'people only, no belongings' and only one small bag per person. With no food, almost no water and initially unarmed, the men made their way through the streets saving those who needed saving and waiting for the Coast Guard to show up.




What an amazing story. I'm sure we will hear many more like these but I'm going to try and roundup more as I think we need to read them. There is only so much hate, blame and anger one can take. Let's start talking about the survivors and like the men in this story, the ordinary folks turned heroes.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by nikelbee]

[edit on 5-9-2005 by nikelbee]

[edit on 5-9-2005 by nikelbee]

[edit on 10-9-2005 by DJDOHBOY]

Yet another of the true heros of this disaster

Can you believe it? I've already had 2 biased votes for this article. It's not even about Bush! Ordinarily I would ignore it and insert colourful comment (here) but this is amazing. Are people really prepared to swallow their own bile on a steady diet of bitter news?

There is only so much hate, blame and anger one can take. Let's start talking about the survivors and like the men in this story, the ordinary folks turned heroes.

Hear hear! Whilst I think that blame should rightly be placed at the feet of those who did not do enough to prevent this disaster from becoming as horrific as it did, it is equally true that we need to appreciate the efforts of those people who acted heroically during this time of enormous adversity.

For days now, the entire world has watched in stunned terror as story after story came out of New Orleans describing a surrealistic, nightmarish vision of anarchy. Now that the rescue effort is finally underway in earnest, we should take some time to appreciate the tales of heroism that we will doubtless see emerging from the survivors.

When we see a disaster as crippling and staggeringly horrific as this one was, we lose faith in humanity to a certain extent. Heroes remind that, even in situations where the worst in people reigns, the brave efforts of a few can make an enormous difference and can give us hope that humanity might actually be worth saving.

Good find, nikelbee.

[edit on 5/9/05 by Jeremiah25]