Throughout the entire battle with Katrina, there was so much good
that resulted from the experience. It came in the form of the
goodness of the people. People with very little left but a strong
desire to help others who were unable to leave New Orleans. People
who knew where their strength came from. The good came too from
total strangers who traveled many miles to help others because
they were touched by the plight of so many in need!
Mama D
One of these angels in disguise is Dyan French Cole, better
known as Mama D, the matriarch of her neighborhood. She is
a long time sanitation worker and a community activist. She
seems no bigger than a minute but she has GRIT! She and some
of her friends, whom she calls the "soul patrol", stayed
after the storm and made boat rescues despite the fact that
the police and U. S. marshals harassed them for doing so,
accusing them of looting and telling them that they should
get out of the city. She wonders why they really wanted
her to leave the city.
She refused to leave because she said that her friends
needed her. After sanitizing them on the front porch, she
welcomed into her home the diabetics, those on dialysis,
and an elderly man with a pacemaker among others. Food was
scarce the first few days but she made friends with the
82nd Airborne troops from South Carolina who helped her
get supplies, food and food for abandoned dogs in her
neighborhood. She saw that they too had food and fresh
water every day.
Her hands are always in motion, whether it is cleaning
heavy water laden leaves from her porch or just talking
with her many friends. Mama D looks forward to helping
in some way with putting New Orleans back together.
The Angel in the Black Hummer
This angel was a stranger to New Orleans, rolling into the
city in a black hummer. With her son and three of his friends,
she came from California. An owner of a construction company
and a single mom, Rena Salomon was on a mission for God.
She had watched the news of women wading through water with
their children and heard the stories of children and/or mothers
dying for lack of manpower to save them. She knew she had
to do something to help; she knew she could do it! They loaded
the hummer and headed east.
Rena talked with a man near Baton Rouge who was looking for
his grown children. Another man, looking for his family, had
asked the National Guard, FEMA and the Red Cross but seems
they just couldn't be bothered. He felt his best chance to
find his family was with Rena's help.
For days they drove around New Orleans, finding the forgotten,
like an extended family of 22 and driving them to safer ground.
Rena, her son and his friends managed to rescue a total of
about 84. After twelve days and spending $15,000 of her own,
they returned to California.
And why would she undertake this mission? Nineteen years ago,
her son was so ill with leukemia that doctors gave him a 50/50
chance of living. Rena held him during the night, crying and
praying to God that if He would save her son, she would forever
serve Him in saving His other children. Though she has now gone
home, she plans to return to help others.
Marilyn
