Sympathy And Compassion

This is the story of Mary Janes's brother Gary who lived in New Orleans. Gary decided to stay with the house. His wife Sherril and son Adam went to the Aunt’s house in Mississippi. Gary lives in Metairie (Jefferson Parish) 9 miles from New Orleans.

Gary opened his neighbor’s gate and drove his van up a ramp in between the two houses to shelter his van. He hunkered down with his animals and weathered the storm. He had about 4 feet of water in his house. He went out after the storm and walked in the water with his neighbors and floated the big trees out of the road. The second day the water receded, and he got his van out and went to look for people needing help. The first days he was shuttling as many as he could get in the van to the rescue point. FIMA was air dropping food and water, so he would load his van and drive up and down the streets honking his horn. People came out with tears in their eyes and took the food and water; it was like he was sent from heaven. By the third day he had a route of more then 800 people that were receiving food and water. The fourth day or fifth day the media had a big deal about black people in New Orleans that were being left behind due to color. Gary showed up to load his van to deliver food and a new police officer had been assigned to the drop off point and said he couldn’t have any food or water because it is ONLY for New Orleans. The FIMA guys and National Guard guys that had been there every day and knew what Gary was doing; were getting into a big fight. So finally Gary was given a few cases of water and food and the police officer followed him to see what he was doing. He saw the people come out for help they realized he was doing an incredible job saving lives. The next day he showed up and they signaled him to drive his van around back past the line (2.5 hour line waiting time) and they brought over a fork lift and they were pumping the food and water into his van. The police were giving him addresses of people that had called 911 for help.

At night Gary went to his neighbor’s house down the street. He has a generator and a lot of rescue workers would gather and talk about the events of the day. He said it was like a movie. Everyday was more incredible.

Gary lives three blocks down from Lake Ponchatrain. He walked down the street and climbed up on the levy only to see the huge hole in the levy. He saw helicopters dropping huge sand bags into the opening. He said it looked like a quarter dropping into a bathtub. The hole was not made by the hurricane directly but it was a barge. The barge was used to build the bridge and was supposed to be sunk prior to the hurricane. The pumps that normally run to maintain the water were evacuated, turned off and they left the gates open. The water was rushing out into the city. They claimed the roof was torn off and the pumps were under water. Not true.

Gary said there was one radio station that was only hurricane news 24/7. He was surprised so many were left behind. He said the politicians knew the people were unable to get out, because on Election Day there were buses sent to shuttle them to the poles. So they new the people didn’t have the means to get out.

He also said FIMA was there from day one. He saw three Red Cross trucks come in one day they unloaded food and water and he never saw Red Cross again. He also commented on the only politician that was there front and center was the Mayor of New Orleans. Everyone else was talking a big story on the news.

Yesterday Gary organized three separate pick up points for the public to go and get food and water in their neighborhoods. Then he spent the day dropping off the supplies directly to the three pick up points.

I thank God Gary was there to help save so many people. He has spent at least $800.00 on gas driving over 70 miles to refuel and keep going. He said for the first time in his life money meant nothing. It was the tears of joy when he came with food and water that made the whole experience worth it.

Sympathy sees and says, "I'm sorry." Compassion sees and says, "I'll help."