No Government Help Needed: Louisiana Used Ingenuity and Volunteer Help to Rescue Themselves, and In Fascinating Ways

The flooded people of Louisiana didn’t need Obama and the government to rescue them, because like most Americans, they were willing to take on the task of rescuing one another among themselves.

And the way they did it was pretty amazing to say the least. Instead of waiting for help, sportsman from within Louisiana took to the flood waters in their boats, and together created a private fleet whose soul purpose was to get other residents to safety.

But it wasn’t just a search and rescue. The fleet organized and found people to rescue by utilizing social media, and cell phone apps.

From Fee.org:

Instead of waiting for the government to come rescue them, the people of Louisiana used their own privately-owned boats to save their neighbors. This “Cajun Navy” drew its ranks and fleet from Louisiana’s large numbers of sportsmen. People who needed rescue contacted a Facebook group and the boats used smartphone apps such as the GPS app Glympse and the walkie talkie app Zello to coordinate. The “Cajun Navy” was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Louisianians and their pets and livestock.

“The Cajun Navy” sounds like something straight out of a comic book. In other words, way too cool.

Furthermore, Louisianans took sheltering their flood victims via private property. One example in particular had a man sheltering over 2000 residents in his film studio. Aside from food and water provided by volunteers, it also had a clinic set up by local doctors.

The people of Louisiana also distributed immediate relief to their displaced neighbors much more efficiently than the government was able to. One of the best examples of this was the conversion of a movie studio into a shelter housing over 2,000 people. The Celtic Media Centre is one of Louisiana’s premier film production studios located in Baton Rouge, which was one of the cities hardest hit by the flooding. The studio’s executive director, Patrick Mulhearn, saw how devastated his neighbors were by the high water and decided to open up Celtic as an emergency shelter.

Celtic was able to shelter over 2,000 evacuees in large, open, and air conditioned sound stages that were not being used for filming at the time. The shelter was supplied at first by local volunteers who donated food, water, and clothing to those affected by the storm. Volunteer doctors and other medical personnel, themselves often flood victims, set up a clinic in Celtic.

And all this without one ounce of government help. Louisianans built that, and in the most dire of situations. Just another testament to how great American ingenuity and charity is.

(Picture from 13NewsNow.com)

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