The power that enables the human spirit to accomplish things out
of this world has always amazed me. I kept being reminded of that
as I walked through the Hurricane Katrina National Memorial Park
and Museum.
We were on vacation a couple weeks ago in New Orleans. As we
walked around Jackson Square, we stumbled on the museum, a tearful
testimony of what happened in the city back in 2005. Hurricane
Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the history of
America, but it wasn't the numbers that grabbed your attention in
the museum, it was the videos of survivors and heroes and villains
that would bring a tear to the eye of the beholder.
The story I remember best from the museum is that of a hero, Ken
Bellau. I don't remember seeing his story in the news, but at the
time, Katrina dominated the news and even our conversation around
here. It would have been easy to lose Bellau's story, no matter how
unbelievable.
Before I walked into the museum, on the right side before you walk
in, is a well-worn 24-foot Skeeter bass boat with a Yamaha 25 on
it. Fishermen will tell you that boat will "get up and go." That's
what it did in the days after Katrina, rescuing over 400 people
with Bellau at the helm.
Bellau's story is long and emotional, and makes me think of similar
stories of heroes in place such as Joplin, where every-day people
suddenly get thrust into heroic roles.
Anyway, Bellau, 37, was in South America for a bike race when
Katrina hit New Orleans. He immediately rushed back and was asked
to check on friends and relatives in the flooded Uptown district
where he lived. Things were in such chaos, so dangerous, that
Bellau put on a pair of fatigues, strapped a 40mm handgun with a
holster on his hip and went to work saving people.
Bellau "borrowed" the boat from some men who had "borrowed" the
boat to escape the devastating floodwaters, and the rest is
history. Bellau got the Skeeter three days after Katrina, and
eventually picked up 400 people - drug dealers and gang members,
little old ladies and children - and took them to safety.
The stories Bellau and the people he saved tell on video at the
museum are emotional and amazing, letting you know that despite all
the bad things we hear today, when it gets down to it, there are a
lot of good folks, too.
Bellau worked with the National Guard, and he and his borrowed boat
became instrumental in rescue efforts.
He used an abandoned Shell station for a marina and tied the boat
to the pump islands. Bellau says the Yamaha started every day and
ran from dawn to dark, and he got his gas by texting friends, who
would deliver each day.
The depth finder on the Skeeter showed 21 feet one day, and more
than once the boat struck submerged cars, buildings and concrete
slabs. On one trip Bellau and his boat picked up 39 people, and
water was close to coming over the sides of the boat. You would not
normally put that many people in a boat, but this was anything but
normal.
One elderly woman refused to leave her home, so Bellau took her
food and water every day. One day he went back and found the woman
dead, in the midst of the soupy, toxic water Katrina had left
behind.
When Bellau was finished with his work, he wrote on the boat, "This
boat rescued over 400 people - thank you!" - Ken Ballau, along with
his phone number.
And there are 400 people who thank Ballau, who found out there was
some hero in him, and the heartache of Katrina and the needs of his
community brought it out.
