Canadian "Mounties" got to Chalmette LA before the Feds

[billbuckhead]

September 4, 2005
East of New Orleans, Heavy Damage, Lost Lives and Pleas for Help
By SEWELL CHAN and JEREMY ALFORD

CHALMETTE, La., Sept 3 - St. Bernard Parish, just to the east of New Orleans and surrounded by water - more island than peninsula since Hurricane Katrina - is nearly empty now, the vast majority of its 68,000 residents scattered to who knows where.

Chalmette, the parish seat, was best known as the site of the Battle of New Orleans, one of the last skirmishes in the War of 1812. But in the last few days, Chalmette - a mostly white, working-class community where two oil refineries, a natural-gas processing plant and some fisheries make up most of the local economy - has been the scene of a fight for survival.
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Sheriff Stephens, interviewed on the Cajun Queen, also said federal assistance had been minimal. "I have Royal Canadian Mounties who have gotten here faster than the federal government," he said. "I have made more life-and-death decisions in the last four or five days than I have in 22 years."

The Canadians were actually members of a 47-member search-and-rescue team sent from the municipal government in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Its members have gone from house to house, extracting survivors who have weathered the storm and its bitter aftermath. At least 200 were identified yesterday, said Terry Nikolai, a member of the Canadian team.
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<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national/nationalspecial/04relief.html?pagewanted=print>

[spuddonna]

1. Did they beat them there on horseback because it wouldn't surprise me...n/

[Minstrel Boy]

2. some pics

There's a thread somewhere with more scenes of Canadian assistance.