Posted on 09/06/2005 3:23:38 PM PDT by Crackingham
In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.
Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans.
In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding.
Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.
"It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"
Wow.
I pray for a good future for all of these kids.
It makes me cry to think of it.
Crazy enough to be true, and crazy enough not to be.
Can you be Mayor of NOLA at 6 years of age? This kid did better than Nagin!
HOw about this kid for mayor or governor of La.
Good grief. Those poor kids.
That little 6-year-old showed more responsibility and courage than most adults you hear about,and under such extreme circumstances.
"And a little child shall lead them."
I didn't see either the Mayor or Governor actually leading lost people on the ground, just pi$$ing and moaning for the cameras.
Leadership in New Orleans found...
Unable to speak, a young girl who was found wandering on the interstate out of New Orleans with several other small children receives food and shelter at the Jimmy Swaggert Ministries in Baton Rouge. The five children were rescued by highway workers who were leaving the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Mark Boster / LAT) September 2, 2005
If ever prayers were needed, this story compels them!
Lord, thank you for watching over these babies and please continue to keep them in your loving embrace.
"How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"
Paging Mr. Johnson...Mr. Lyndon Johnson, please pick up the white-hot courtesy phone.
How very sad. I am horrified by the idea that someone may have left them on purpose. We will find them a home in Texas if no parents are found where they will be loved and cared for --- that is what I hope and pray. So much sadness in so many stories.
I try to be optimistic, but the pessimistic part of me says they need all the prayers they can get.
There is a full story on this somewhere on the board. I think they have found the parents. Seems they were seperated when the children were supposed to be airlifted out.
Here's the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477630/posts
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