herbert freeman taking care of his 91-year-old mother, ethel, infirm, and legally blind and lived through many other storms. when the floodwaters threatened their home, herbert decided it was time to leave. i said i am going to the super dome. the super dome is crowded. don t go there, go to the convention center. bring your mama to the convention center. that s what i did. i want to the convention center. he says he was told buses in the convention center were taking people out of new orleans. he wheeled her all the way there through floodwaters thinking they would be safe. at the convention center, however, there was no power. no air conditioning. no medical care. and most important of all, there were no buses. people were desperate for help including ethel and herbert freeman. we want help! we want help! i spoke to herbert in 2005 after the storm.
i was confused. i was angry. i didn t know what to do. i had sprayed. the spirit told me to hold out a little longer that my help was coming, you know? help came too late for ethel freeman. she died 24 hours after reaching the convention center. ten years later, herbert freeman still vividly remembers the moment he realized his mother was gone. so when i went to check, to try to, shake her so she can get up-up know. and she didn t respond. and a woman, a nurse. i am a registered nurse. let me see what is happening. she went, she told me, oh, your mama dead. i said, yeah, i see. so, you know. not only was ethel freeman dead. there was no place to put her body. herbert covered her with a blanket given to her by a stranger and left her by this side store. three days later the buses
finally came. herbert evacuated leaving his mother s body behind. he wrote his name and phone number on a paper and slid it into ethel s pocket. hoping someone would find it. it would be two whole months before anybody could tell herbert freeman where his mother s body had been taken. ethel freeman s death became a symbol of the government s failure to help those who needed it most. i remember seeing that image and it was heartbreaking. it only reminded us that we couldn t work off of a calendar, weed into to work off a clock. we need to move fast. because more people would die if we didn t speed up the evacuation. general russell honore is a
dead, there was nowhere to put her body, so herbert covered her with a blanket given to him by a stranger and left her by the side door. three days later the buses finally came and herbert evacuated leaving his mother s body behind. he wrote his name and phone number on a piece of paper and slipped it inside of one of ethel s pockets hoping someone would find it and give his mother s body back to him once the crisis was over. it would be two months before anyone could tell herbert freeman with his mother s body was taken. ethel freeman s death became a symbol of the government s failure to help those who needed it most. i remember seeing that image and it was heart breaking. it reminds us we couldn t worry about the calendar. we need to worry about the clock. we need to move fast because
herbert covered her with a blanket given to her by a stranger and left her by this side store. three days later the buses fi l finally came. herbert evacuated leaving his mother s body behind. he wrote his name and phone number on a paper and slid it into ethel s pocket. hoping someone would find it. it would be two whole months before anybody could tell herbert freeman where his mother s bed had beody had been. ethel freeman s death became a symbol of the government s failure to help those who needed it most. i remember seeing that image and it was heartbreaking. it only reminded us that we couldn t work off of a calendar, weed into to work off a clock. we need to move fast. because more people would die if we didn t speed up the evacuation. general russell honore is a