Caskets are floating up out of the ground, as the Daily News reports. When the ground gets saturated and the caskets are well sealed, they're simply a bubble of air, and air floats to the top of water.
This isn't the first time we've seen this, but that fact doesn't make it any easier to bear. It's a damned shame, a personal horror, and the caskets are a hazard to navigation.
Not enough media attention has been brought to this tragedy, but over 20,000 people have been rescued over the past week, mainly through the efforts of local law enforcement and volunteers. Our own parish sheriff has sent resources south, as has the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office. I'm a veteran of Natchitoches Parish and they always "kick in" when someone is hurting, as does the Rapides Parish Sheriff's office, my current employer.
But, the big news is the Cajun Navy. Purely a voluteer force, they've launched their swamp craft and are working with law enforcement and relief agencies to get folks out of the flood water. It's a monumental task. I applaud their efforts. As Breitbart reports:
Organizers say that the “Cajun Navy” grew out of a natural need to provide additional manpower to local first responders trying to keep pace with calls for rescue of people and animals beginning on August 13. The all-volunteer force pays out of pocket to provide communication devices and appropriate transportation, often spending days at a time on the water performing recoveries. Within the social media chatter promoting the Navy’s services comes a clear motto: “We don’t wait for the help, we are the help.”
As bad as it is in southeast Louisiana, a lot of other communities are hurting. If you've got a minute tonight before bed, pray for Lafayette, Estherwood, Crowley, Gueydan, and lots of small communities in south Louisiana that are being flooded as I type this. The rain continues, in fact, it's raining on PawPaw's acre right now.
PawPaw is okay. No danger of me flooding, but lots of my brethren are hurting right now. Prayers certainly can't hurt.
3 comments:
Pray for Baton Rouge, too. Friends of mine are homeless. Pray for Livingston, and False River, and Walker. Pray for Iberville parish, And Ascension, and others. People are hurting, and it makes my heart heavy seeing all of the people at the shelters.
I try to give high-fives to the children. They are the ray of hope in all of this. No matter the grief, if you give a child the chance to smile, they will.
My prayers for all those in the flood area (I'll include them in my nightly prayers, but they just got a brief supplication anyhow).
I'm loving the Cajun Navy. About like the (purely notional) 2nd ('cause we don't get in enough of a hurry to be 1st) Tennessee Mechanized Recovery Horde, which appears on the roads when there's an ice storm. 4WDs, chains, ropes, & rednecks riding around looking for folks that may need help. I'm told there may be alcohol involved, but one or two actually do so responsibly. When younger, I was not among the one or two, but what the hell, I was dumber (I hope).
God bless all those coonasses, and all the others, out doing good work.
--Tennessee Budd
The comparision with a few weeks ago makes my heart bubble over. All the trouble back then, now you have everybody helping everybody else. SWMBO showed me a video on the book of face, black guy was asking where were the BLM boats and the BP boats? Nowhere, just people helping people. GW
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