'Help me, please don't let me die' -- 911 operators in NOLA

[Helga Scow Stern]

'Help me, please don't let me die'
911 operators confront grim task, ghastly calls

Operators fall apart once off the phone


By Brian Thevenot
Staff writer

As she took that first call from a woman trapped in her 9th Ward attic, 911 operator Lechia Allen ached with the grim realization that the next call would be the same. And the next. And the next. She couldn't do a thing for any of them.


Working in the downtown 911 center at Broad and Gravier streets, next to the Falstaff antenna, Allen knew police wouldn't respond to calls while the winds of Hurricane Katrina roared. She knew the rescue operation wouldn't start for hours and, in many cases, days. Laboring under the heavy weight of helplessness, all Allen and her 120 fellow operators could do was listen to the terrifying tales of rising waters, raging fires and parents holding their children toward the skies, above the floodwaters.

"They heard people taking their last breaths. They heard people holding children up in the peak of the attics, and dropping children in the water and watching them drown," said New Orleans Police Capt. Steve Gordon, chief of the 911 center.

Some of the nearly all-female staff working with Allen, 44, took calls from the same neighborhoods where they knew their families had stayed to ride out the storm, she said. Some lost loved ones. Others haven't been found.

more....


http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_19.html#080890

[nonconformist]

1. Oh my god

That is so tragic. :cry:

[mtnester]

2. Don't know who needs Crisis intervention management more

survivors, rescue workers, dispatchers...so many people who will need mental health counseling.

[Helga Scow Stern]

3. Many of us are traumatized who weren't even there....

[Carni]

19. I have been having nightmares since 8-27

I am not kidding or exagerating-- I am at the point where I dread sleeping and I am no where near NO or the gulf.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. They come out of the water and reach for me.

And lately, the nightmares have included animals, too.

The worst one, I won't even describe.

[Carni]

22. Every night I dream I am with a mass of people

We're going somewhere trying to do something, there are bodies around but we keep going. It involves tunnels or freeways, or something (not sure what) and there is military patrolling but not actually engaging.

I wake up every morning at about 4 AM and can't exactly remember what the dream was about, but then the next night the same damned thing continues I wake up at 4 and the pattern continues...

I'm to the point, I don't even want to go to sleep- prophecy, guilt, empathy...I don't know what the hell this is but it's not pleasant and Rita isn't exactly calming my nerves during the day.

[faithnotgreed]

6. devastating

[Helga Scow Stern]

4. Seems important because it is first hand information of deaths,

which may be minimized in the spin.

[Sunkiss BlueStar]

5. I made my lil sis

change the channel on her car radio. The station we were listening too played the tape of a teenager begging for help. Then another who made it to a different state. said she hadn't heard from her family in a week. Its the horror in their voice that grabs you and makes your eyes pour water. I just couldn't take it.

and now * is on vacation. why us?

[spuddonna]

7. JMJ...

All these poor people... :cry:

The people at 911, the people that died horribly in their homes, the people that volunteered to help but were forced by our govt to stand by watching as others died because of paperwork... It is so heartbreaking.

I hope these survivors find counselling... :(

[intheflow]

8. Nominated.

This is a heatbreaking article! :cry:

But what heros those 911 operators were, and the ones who've stayed continue to be. I hope thatalong with the FEMA money they're able to get counseling to deal with the survivor guilt they're bound to experience. God bless them all! :grouphug:

*Edited to add that I nominated this thread, agreeing with Ojai Person that since this is first-hand information, it cannot be spun by Rove's machinery.

[GOPFighter]

9. This is a disaster that just keeps ripping me up

Those poor operators. Those poor people trapped and dying. I spent the whole week after Katrina hit NO in a stupor. I couldn't work, I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't do a damn thing to help those trapped in NO. I just watched day by day furious at the lack of response.

Now I read this and the hurt comes back again.

We failed them

[roguevalley]

10. there is no end to the horror. god help them find some way to live

with this. all the people working have this in their hearts, they just had to hear it. The others are picking up the wreckage of it. all are too sad for words. Bush? He can't understand anything. who is more pitiable?

[Merlot]

24. Me too. The week it happend I was either distraught or angry. Or both.

And I've been having dreams to. Not as vivid as the ones mentioned here. Just chaos and water and wading. A lot of the imagry I saw on TV has made it into my dreams. At least I know now I'm not crazy for having these dreams since I wasn't physically affected by this (I'm in CA).

[Helga Scow Stern]

28. Me too. This has affected me more than any collective event so far.

[progressivebydesign]

11. I hope they can get those operators help later on.. they'll need it.

That will haunt them forever. Fuck the government for their homicidally ineffective response.

[lpbk2713]

12. Like hearing the last radio calls from the Titanic

It has to be a harrowing experience.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Bush could use these tapes for his Carla Faye Tucker collection

The sociopath needs something to cheer him up and give him a good chuckle.

[Bluebear]

18. Excellent post.

Sociopathic narcissist, totally unfeeling.

[Nothing Without Hope]

14. This is beyond horrible. May these people find a way to healing.

If FEMA had been functional, those neighborhoods wouldn't have drowned because the levees would have been protected. And even if they had broken, FEMA would have done their promised job in hurricane response - or if the levees had not been allowed to deteriorate because their maintenance/buildup budget had been cut. Be sure you read and bookmark these two articles, the first one short and the second a must-read, solid 34 report:

1. http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091805/new_blanco001.shtml
DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1788866
thread title: Blanco says feds pledged buses

2. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4813353
thread title: "Unacceptable": The Federal Response to Katrina
The author {Walter Brasch} is an award-winning syndicated columnist, professor of journalism, and a former emergency management official. This{34-page} article is an in-depth look at the Bush policies that created the atmosphere not only for an ineffective FEMA response during the Katrina catastrophe, but which may have contributed to additional property destruction and deaths than should have occurred.

[savemefromdumbya]

15. People need to be reminded of this, we must not let this happen again

We must not let this happen again. This was a diabolical mess that could be prevented. The authorities had as much warning from weather specialists. Why wasn't the Federal government ready before the hurricane hit.

[CoffeeCat]

16. "We must not let this happen again"....so true...

I have to say, I never knew that this happening was within the realm of possibilities.

I never, EVER, in a million years--thought that people would have to wait days for help to arrive, when they are in such dire straights.

I never imagined these horrors.

I still can't imagine it.

I still don't know why this happened.

[savemefromdumbya]

29. other countries' view on this - they are asking why?

of course in other countries disasters (man made or not) DO happen - as we know - the big Tsunami in the Indian Ocean. However, others cannot comprehend why nothing was done to plan for Katrina or initiate evac. and rescue earlier and why such a fool is in charge of this country and why he would be allowed to get away with it?

[Bluebear]

17. Was Bush eating cake during this? Or playing guitar? nt

[Bouncy Ball]

20. Holy shit, holy shit.

Every single person in the bush administration should have to listen to every single moment of those tapes. Especially peoples' horror as they watched their children die. Especially peoples' last gasps of life before they died.

My God. I hope those operators are getting some counseling or something. How horrific.

[AnneD]

31. I know they feel like they failed

BUT I hope they gave those people a special gift-they did not die alone....as ghoulish as that seems, I know it was a comfort to family and those that died.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Oh God. This nightmare shouldn't be real

[mermaid]

25. They Ought To Get A Reel-To-Reel Tape Of These Calls

and tie GW Bush down to a chair, and force that sanctimonious son of a bitch to listen to every call...every plea for help...and have a notation after each call if that was one who later DIED as a result of Bush not helping in time.

If he is an uncaring and unfeeling son of a bitch, perhaps, through shock therapy, we can MAKE that motherfucker care!

[HeeBGBz]

26. I thought the flood didn't hit until the day after the storm?

Or that was just my understanding.

[Helga Scow Stern]

27. The article talks of a respite after the storm, then the flooding

started.

[AnneD]

30. Some EMS workers

tatooed their SS# on their bodies because they felt they would die and wanted to be identifiable. As a Nurse...I know I would do the same thing if push came to shove.