for all of you who have ever wondered just why we should keep working
long after others have given up hope....this story says it all


76-Year-Old Man Trapped in Big Easy for 18 Days
By DAVID CRARY and ROSE HANSON, AP

NEW ORLEANS (Sept. 18) - Day after day, for more than two weeks, the
76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a
dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a
house ringed by foul floodwaters.
Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin lived out one of the most
remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina. Rescuers who found
him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded
at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or
human contact.

"It's an incredible story of survival," said Louie Fernandez,
spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency search unit
that carried out the rescue.

In recent days, search crews have been finding corpses by the dozens
in the still-flooded neighborhoods of New Orleans, but not trapped
survivors. The FEMA search-and-rescue boat navigating through the
Eighth Ward didn't expect to find anyone alive at 6010 Painters St.,
but they planned to search the premises of a one-story wood house.

As the motor idled and the boat glided forward, they heard a voice.

"Hey, over here."

Using a sledgehammer, a FEMA rescuer broke down the front door and
went inside with another team member, struggling through a living
room jumbled with overturned, sodden furniture.

They found Martin sitting in a chair in the sludge-covered kitchen,
partially undressed in an effort to keep cool. After 16 days in his
attic, he had descended to the ground floor two days earlier when the
floodwaters — once up to the ceiling — finally drained, even though
the house remained surrounded by several feet of water.
Incredibly, Martin — who ran out of his gallon-and-a-half water
supply on Thursday — was able to walk out of the house with just a
bit of assistance.

"He was weak, very tired, but he was able to speak, able to stand,"
Fernandez said. "He was very relieved. He was very thirsty. He was in
good spirits."

Martin was given water to drink, then taken to Ochsner Foundation
Hospital, where nurse Jinny Resor said he was treated for
dehydration. She said Martin had taken medication while he was
trapped, but she wasn't sure what it was for.

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press late Friday
night, Martin said he was feeling fine.

"So far, so good," he said.

As for his ordeal, his description was concise: "I was living in the
attic for 16 days, and I was living off water."

The two rescuers who retrieved him are firefighters with a California-
based FEMA team — J.D. Madden of Santa Clara and Eric Mijangos of
Menlo Park.

"I don't know how much longer he could have went on without water,"
said Madden, 29.

Martin's family left before the storm, but he stayed to attend
church, later took a nap and woke up to find that his home was
filling with water, Madden said.

Martin only had time to grab some water and get to his attic, which
he described as feeling like an oven during day-after-day of mid-90-
degree heat that followed the storm. Madden said the heat in the
attic might have been even worse, perhaps fatal, except for shade
provided by a fallen tree.

Staff Sgt. Jason Randor, a military police officer with the
Massachusetts National Guard, watched the rescue from another boat
that was helping provide security for the search team. He recalled
jubilant yells from the firefighters when they realized someone alive
was inside.

Martin emerged, wearing jeans and a shirt.

"While they were putting him in the chopper, he asked if they could
stop on the way at Taco Bell to get something to eat," Randor said.

Fernandez, of FEMA, was on scene when Martin arrived at a FEMA base
camp before going to the hospital.

"He had lost a lot of weight," Fernandez said. "He definitely had to
hold his pants up with his hands."
Martin was the first trapped person found alive by Madden's
California Task Force Three team in its 12 days of calling out to
homes from the boat and peering into windows.

"We've been in the rescue mode the whole time and haven't given up
hope that there was someone out there alive," he said.

But officials overseeing the search effort said the discovery of
corpses and the dwindling number of rescues has been taking an
emotional toll on search units.

"Our squad members are getting access to trauma and grief
counselors," said FEMA rescue squad liaison Charles Hood. "It's
becoming a very difficult task."

Fernandez said Saturday that Martin's rescue was a welcome morale
boost for his colleagues.

"Little victories like we saw yesterday help motivate people, who are
facing one of the toughest jobs they've ever faced," he said.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Rose Hanson
in Baton Rouge and Cain Burdeau in New Orleans.


09-18-05 08:30 EDT