"... But the loss of power and the shortage of supplies was not what frightened Caraway on Tuesday.  What frightened her was what she saw when she walked out on the catwalk over Tulane Avenue.

'I saw a young man, not in uniform, walking through chest-high water, carrying a rifle up over his head.  I saw two men in a boat in T-shirts and cut-offs with seven or eight guns in the boat.  I saw two men in those orange Parish Prison jumpsuits.  It was just an oh-my-God kind of thing.

In our parking garage, while we were driving these patients up to the roof, there were people so bold as to be looting our employees' cars in front of us.  Tuesday night, the helicopters stopped flying because of gunfire.  We don't know where it came from or where it was targeted, but it sounded like gunfire.  When you see people with guns in the streets and you hear things that sound like gunshots, that's what you think.

If you weren't here, you don't really understand how scary it was.  It was scary.  The entire time I was down there, I didn't see one NOPD officer.  We were scared of rioting, of the commandeering of assets.  We were scared of lawlessness, of anarchy.  We felt vulnerable.  Very vulnerable'..."

CLICK HERE to read "Angels of Mercy".  

EP :'(

"... For her hard work, dedication and bravery, Zechenelly was named one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year.  She was one of six women involved with recovery efforts after Katrina who were honored with the award at a ceremony November 2 in New York City.  While there, Zechenelly, 35, met other honorees, actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones and Goldie Hawn and tennis star Venus Williams among them.

But Lauren Smith Brody, the senior editor at Glamour and coordinator of the Women of the Year program, said Zechenelly was a perfect choice for the award.

'We pick from women who are heroes to our readers, from the people that are courageous and inspiring, strong more than anything,' Smith Brody said.  'The one thing this amazing array of women has is strength, both emotional and physical.  These six heroes after Hurricane Katrina, they were experiencing the same problems as everyone else in the Gulf Coast area.  But they found the strength and fortitude to put aside their own difficulties to help others.  That's amazing, and that's what we want to represent.'

Others lauded for their efforts during the recovery period were Sara Faulkner, the only female rescue swimmer for the U.S. Coast Guard; Yamily Bass-Choate, an Episcopal priest in Mississippi; U.S. Army Pvt. Yakima Sanderlin; Dr. Cathi Fontenot, a physician at Charity and University hospitals in New Orleans; and local nurse Julie Newman..."

CLICK HERE to read "Agent hit ground running after storm".  

EP :'(