Boats heading for Houston
The BBC reports on the self-styled Cajun Navy, a group of volunteer rescuers set up during Katrina and operating ever since, doing its thing in Houston. They bring their own boats.
The Cajun Navy is in Houston. Proud to say my nephew & his coworkers left their homes and families to help. #CajunNavy pic.twitter.com/kIFMilupPg
— Tiger Pickett (@thetiglet71) August 28, 2017
Cajun navy deploys to Houston pic.twitter.com/uVSJWyhnxH
— Cw myers (@gunslinger686) August 25, 2017
Cajun Navy organiser Clyde Cain told CNN: “Our goal is to help people get out if they are trapped in their homes or apartments, get them to safety.”
The group sent 20 boats on a 300-mile trip to Houston on the back of trucks.
Since Katrina in 2005, the group has grown and co-ordinates rescue efforts through its Facebook page.
It helps people prepare for storms, with food distribution, and helps in rescue operations.
Social media plays a big part too, as people post messages to alert them to places needing assistance.
It’s reminiscent of Dunkirk, when thousands of civilians with boats helped with the evacuation.
Passing another #CajunNavy convoy on I-10 westbound from NOLA toward #HoustonFloods #HarveyRelief pic.twitter.com/G9jHi3tGRL
— RickLeventhal (@RickLeventhal) August 28, 2017
The wetlands of Louisiana and Florida particularly make for a lot of people with recreational and/or professional use of small, flat-bottomed boats, often along with trucks with high wheel bases suitable for driving through some flood waters. It’s great that they’re willing and able to put them to use in emergencies of this sort.
My childhood was spread over many of the eastern United States, but among those childhood years and occasional adult ones were those spent near New Orleans. Plenty of unflattering generalizations are fair enough, but people around there will come together to help one another in need.
People do. Even sworn enemies do.
When I read “Cajun Navy” I thought it was going to be bad. I have authority issues, OK? I’m distrustful of things like navies.
It’s nice to be occasionally proven wrong about humans and my preconceptions.
Good people went with boats and supplies; the bad took just an over-inflated ego and cheap hats.
@Acolyte of Sagan
And ill-fitting suits. And probably very expensive shoes. And no empathy at all.
latsot, mustn’t forget the unnecessarily long ties and shockingly limited vocabulary.
Heh, I guess the bad went fully laden after all.
Good that they did this, that they’ve kept an active organization.
Bad, very bad, that this is what Republicans think emergency response should be.