Uptown New Orleans and up the river that used to be Napoleon Avenue, they just keep coming. Today, and for the last 36 hours, we’ve witnessed a weary procession of survivors. They finally made it out, more than a week after Katrina left the block.
Now airboats are the vehicles of choice on this thoroughfare, and they are transporting hundreds of survivors to dry ground.
There was a southern grand dame, in her 90s, saved from the second story of her home. “My name’s Victoria Young and I don’t know where I’m going,” says one grandmother in her 80s.
And then there was Myrtle Harper, who could teach the younger, stronger among us a thing or two about the human spirit. She’s lived in New Orleans all her life — 86 years.
Myrtle told us she’d survived Hurricane Camille back in 1969 with no trouble, so she didn’t listen to neighbors who suggested she evacuate before this storm hit.
The hurricane she said, sounded like a big truck, and the houses shook. Then the levees breached, and rising flood waters trapped her in her house.
“I wasn’t in water or anything, and I had food and water,” says Harper. She waited calmly for a week until her rescuers came. Now, Miss Myrtle had all her possessions in a tiny white suitcase but she also possesses a grateful heart. And she told us she couldn’t believe how lucky she was.
Everyone of these rescuers plying down Napoleon ave. has said that gratitude from rescuers keeps them going. Most of the rescue crews are a sort of pick up team of local officers, out-of-staters, and everyday folks.
“I’ve been getting hugs and kisses,” says one rescuer.
But some of the rescuers who have been working Napoleon ave. for days now could use a little help themselves. A local volunteer Tim Thomas is looking to contact his kids who were evacuated.
Stories of the young and the old: We thought we heard it all, and then we heard about a 15-year-old whose mother left home just before the storm hit to check on a friend, and for some reason, never returned to pick up her son so he was trapped.
Two sheriffs from Albuquerque found her.
There are so many stories floating down Napoleon ave., including those about people who were choosing to stay because they thought they had nowhere to go.
But as for Miss Myrtle, she was now ready to move off this block. Last we saw, Miss Myrtle had her own personal escort— a police officer who was taking her to a little town west of New Orleans called Louisiana place, where she hopes family members will come get her.
