A 'borrowed' car -- and she's out

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/cst-nws-diaspora12.html

After languishing for almost a week in a smelly French Quarter apartment, Park Ridge native Diane Chaine was desperate to evacuate from hurricane-ravaged New Orleans with her toddler daughter, Kendra.

She and her roommates hauled their meager belongings to the curb to start their trek out of the flooded city. Then a New Orleans police officer delivered the bad news: the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a staging center for evacuees, was closed.

What happened next astonished Chaine.

"The cop said, 'Wait here, I'm going to get you a car right now,'" she recalled. "He came back 20 minutes later with a Camry, not a new one, but a car with a full tank of gas. It was like in the movies -- no chitchat. He just said, 'Here is my name, here is my district in case you have any problems. Now get out of here.'"

Half a day later, the carload of evacuees rolled into Houston in their "borrowed" Toyota...

[Missy M]

1. Cheers and applause to the New Orleans police officer!!!

[halobeam]

2. IMO, that is how it should've been for every single person/family

trying to get out. Life first, ya know? This looting, car jacking bullshit when people are fighting for their lives is quite frankly disgusting. If I were a judge, I'd turn the tables on any officer who arrested someone who tried to leave the city to save their own life.

[Why Syzygy]

3. Now that's a rescue mission .. nt

[CottonBear]

4. She must not have been poor or black because the police would have blocked

her exiting the city just like the Gretna Police did on the Crescent City Connection? How is it that some people just drove in and out and others couldn't even walk out?

[Why Syzygy]

5. I don't know the geography of the city

but is the French Quarter on the other side of the bridge too?

[NNN0LHI]

7. This is from an earlier Sun-Times article below

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-hurrside31.html

Evanston native Diane Chaine survived the storm with her 8-month-old daughter Kendra, and Kendra's father.

They holed up in the French Quarter after deciding not to stay at a shelter the city set up at the Superdome.

"I should have packed up and gone to the Greyhound station," said Chaine, who moved to New Orleans seven years ago and works as a secretary for the Court of Two Sisters restaurant in the Quarter. "The climate, the food, the architecture drew me in," she said. snip

Until she leaves, Chaine said, she will try to help the less fortunate.

"We're not hurt. We don't even have a cut. Now I am worried about those people on those roofs," she said.

[buzzsaw_23]

6. that's how it should've been done all over

no BS or red tape just common sense and care. "Get the hell out" and "let's take care of each other".

[kath]

8. I have a sneaking suspicion that this woman and her friends are not black.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Her photo is in the print edition and your suspicions are valid n/t