Thursday, September 15, 2005

Katrina Survivors

I met some survivors of Hurricane Katrina today. They were shopping at Marshall's with a check for $650 from the feds. One was a very frail, petite old lady--maybe 80 years old--and the other was a tall, gangly man with a fuzzy beard, a patch over one eye, and bright new tennis shoes. Both were black. They did not look like your typical Portlanders, and they had thick southern accents that were hard for me to follow. I got into a conversation with a large woman in a wheel chair who was related to them. Apparently they had gotten trapped in their attic and had broken out with a sledgehammer and an ax. The old lady had a beautiful grand piano that was destroyed. They were trapped on the roof without food or water for several days, while helicopters flew by. The man told me that he had waved to the helicopters, but none had stopped until maybe the fifth day. Then they were taken to a dry overpass in New Orleans, where they were stuck for several more days. Without food and water. (Couldn't they have been taken somewhere safer??) People were breaking into stores to steal food and water, and were selling it at high prices to those who were trapped. (I learned all of this in a 2-minute elevator ride to the food court). It was amazing to meet people who had been through everything we've seen on the news. It was amazing that this frail 80-year-old lady survived. The whole story was amazing.

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