by Marlon Manuel, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sept. 12, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The Georgia National Guard started door-to-door searches Friday for survivors and bodies in the city's lower Ninth Ward, where some of the city's poorest residents suffered from some of the worst flooding from Hurricane Katrina.
The area was dry enough for foot patrols, though some sidewalks and lawns remained slickened by the putrid flood residue. Two units from Georgia arrived Labor Day weekend and have been slogging through the muck to distribute food, water and medical aid -- and to offer survivors a ride out.
"Let's go help these people," Capt. Jason Smith, commander of the 190th MP company from Kennesaw, Ga., told a 25-soldier platoon before it left the gates of Jackson Barracks, a Louisiana National Guard fort itself ravaged by 12-foot floodwaters. "We're not doing forced evacuations. We're helping those who want help."
Some troops carried shotguns to protect against aggressive dogs. Others had M-16 rifles and 9mm handguns. All wore heavy, constricting body armor that led ultimately led to heat exhaustion and dehydration in the 90-degree heat.
Forbidden to break down doors, Guard troops banged on doors and forcefully announced themselves. The 109th later joined volunteer agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, authorized by Washington to forcibly open doors. Drug agents used a crowbar and a black battering ram -- "the black key that opens all doors," as one agent noted.
When the floodwaters were here, furniture floated to the ceilings. Receding water then deposited the belongings haphazardly, sometimes blocking entries with dressers or sofas. At one house, a large TV lay toppled. Slippery muck coated the floor.
"Military police! We're coming in!" a soldier yelled as they entered an unlocked door in a blue double on Tricou Street, near the Mississippi River, looking for survivors expected to be traumatized by the disaster.
At another house, a six-troop squad entered through a bedroom painted pink and purple, decorated in the theme of Disney princesses. A Barbie Princess toy and a box of 64 crayons lay on the child's floor. Her school identification card hung on her white dresser: Keviana Weaver, Thomas Edison Elementary School.
A picture of the young girl wearing her beauty queen tiara is wedged in her dresser mirror. Another snapshot shows her sitting in Santa's lap .
"Coming out!" a soldier yelled, signaling the search is over.
"Coming out!" those monitoring the house perimeter echoed.
There are no survivors, but no bodies, either.
As troops left, they spray-painted houses with Xs. In the top of the X, they marked 9/9 for the date. On the left of the X is the searching agency: TF 169, for Task Force 169, the Guard operation Georgia falls under. On the right is a list of hazards: Dogs, gas, electrical. On the bottom are body counts, dead and alive: 0-L, 0-D.
The scene was being repeated across the city, and authorities said they're finding far fewer bodies than had been feared.
"Some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred," said Col. Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief.
He declined to give a revised estimate. But he added: "Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000."
The encouraging news came as authorities officially shifted most of their attention to counting and removing the dead after spending days cajoling, persuading and all but strong-arming the living into leaving the city because of the danger of fires and disease from the fetid floodwaters.
Ever since Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29, residents, rescuers and cadaver-sniffing dogs have found bodies floating in the waters, trapped in attics or left lying on broken highways. Some were dropped off at hospital doorsteps or left slumped in wheelchairs out in the open.
Ebbert said the search for the dead will be done systematically, block-by-block, with dignity and with no news media allowed to follow along. "You can imagine sitting in Houston and watching somebody removed from your parents' property. We don't think that's proper," he said.
A dozen boats awaiting calls to retrieve bodies were lined up early Friday on an interstate ramp that was being used as a makeshift boat launch. Soldiers also hauled the last of the bodies out of the convention center, which became an increasingly violent and chaotic place before the evacuees were finally removed a week ago.
Still, survivors continue to be found, nearly two weeks after the storm laid waste to the Gulf Coast. In a different part of the Ninth Ward Friday, a woman dropped her key from a second-floor window and asked to be rescued.
"There are still people alive out here," Staff Sgt. Matt Frost told troops.
On Thursday, Pvt. Christopher Stevenson, 27, of Decatur, Ga., and Sgt. Andre Valentine, 47, of Covington, Ga., medics from the 178th MP company in Monroe, Ga., helped stabilize a man in his 80s, found in his house by DEA agents.
Stevenson and Valentine rushed to the Ninth Ward house just blocks from their temporary post in Jackson Barracks. They arrived to find the diabetic in his bed full of bodily wastes, a water mark left on the wall about five feet high. The room was dark and dank and the carpet squished underfoot, oozing dark green slime.
"The agents barely heard him call out," Valentine said.
The medics stabilized the unidentified man and rushed him to a civilian triage center, where he was taken by helicopter to a hospital.
"That's our job," Stevenson said. "It makes us feel good. It makes missing my family all worth it."
As originally published
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Commentary:
In the rubble of New Orleans, the National Guard isn't supposed to break down doors looking for survivors ... that job falls to the DEA -- the Drug Enforcement Agency?
This is wildly inappropriate, and blatantly unConstitutional.
A door-to-door search is arguably necessary, under the circumstances, but it's supposed to be a search for survivors and/or the corpses of the dead.
A disastrous hurricane and flood should not be used as an excuse to
crack down on illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia. But is there any other
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Forbidden to break down doors, National Guard troops banged on doors and forcefully announced themselves.
The 109th later joined volunteer agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, authorized by Washington to forcibly open doors.
Drug agents used a crowbar and a black battering ram -- "the black key that opens all doors," as one agent noted.
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conceivable reason to have DEA agents involved, in battering down doors for house-to-house searches? What a sickening abuse of power.
How many survivors of the flood will be prosecuted for marijuana in their sock drawer, or cocaine found in the cabinet?
=H&HH= |
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Say it with a bumper sticker
$3 each, or two for $5
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