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8 • KATRINA: FIVE YEARS FORWARD
SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2010 • THE SEA COAST ECHO
I took the man out of the cell and walked him to the staircase and opened the door.
Below was a lagoon of water and debris surrounding the jail.
"If you want to leave, just go ahead," I told him.
He looked at me in amazement at what was going on outside.
"We are all in this together now. If you die, so will I," I said.
After that, inmates and officers all huddled quietly on the second floor of the jail.
For two long hours, the wind blew and then finally, the water started to receded.
Not long after, the water receded, officers and civilians gathered in front of the jail to catch a smoke break and ponder what had happened.
The wind was still blowing some, but we were able to hear shrieking cries for help coming from the direction of the Fire Dog Saloon.
About a dozen officers and several trustees took off down the street to see who was screaming.
It was a man, trapped in six feet of rubble. He had been in a house on Court Street that had been obliterated.
In another badly-damaged home, two elderly women saw us and screamed for help.
One of the women had a compound fracture to her arm, the other was in shell-shock.
Led by Ronnie Cuevas, a group of about 10 officers climbed the debris pile and set the man free.
The women were also secured, but it was obvious they all needed medical attention.
With no radios or phones, we knew we had to take these people to the hospital.
Terry Richter had the only truck that was not flooded. He backed the truck up to the old city hall on Main Street and we carried the injured via backboard about 300 yards to the truck.
I volunteered to go to the hospital, along with Barbara
Gillum and trustees Charles Jordan and Steve Miller.
As we made our way down the debris-littered streets, Jordan and Miller jumped out and moved trees and debris to clear the road.
I sat with the man, Nick, who kept saying he was cold.
As we made it to the highway, thousands of sand pellets began to hit us in the back of the neck.
We finally made it to HMC, and after a brief disagreement between us and staff, Dr. Brian Anthony came out and said to bring the victims in.
The hospital was also nearly destroyed and nurses and doctors were not sure if they could treat people.
I remember Dr. Anthony
saying "We can't turn anyone away. We'll do what we can."
We returned to the jail and, later that evening, Terry took me and a few others to check out our homes.
I found my wife, and she told me everyone in her family was fine.
I could not get to my parents' home because of the debris. I slept in a bus that night, not knowing if my parents were still alive.
The next morning, we raised the flag at the courthouse. I remember a Coast Guard helicopter hovering overhead. The pilot gave us a salute as we raised Old Glory.
I found my parents later that day, alive and well, my father cooking a can of baked
beans on his gas grill.
Nobody at the jail those two days were injured. That fact is a testimony to the brave men and women who served there.
Mid-day on Tuesday, the inmates were moved to Pearl River County and I got to go back to what was left of my home.
My reward, a case of beer, from the Fire Dog cooler which had washed up at the Cedar Rest cemetery.
I have never told this story publicly because I did not want to take any credit for doing my job.
There were many heroes that day, some of whom were inmates who risked their lives for others.
People say we should have evacuated the jail and the officers and inmates should have never been put in harm's way.
I say, everything happens for a reason, and because we were there, seven people were rescued.
In my opinion, the greatest compliment those brave officers and myself have ever gotten is when people say we did our job when the community needed us the most.
There were so many people involved in the two rescues, it would be difficult to try to recount who was there and who was not.
To all of those brave officers and trustees who were at the jail on August 29, 2005, thank you. You are my heroes.
“"T" “I—"1*'	-	■	,	J	.
/ 3
....... J,
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