Hundreds Of Resues And One Precious Kiss
Submitted:		N.O.V.A. December 2005
Source:			Times Picayune 12-04-2005

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Images of residents rescued from rising floodwaters filled The Times-
Picayune and NOLA.com during those dizzying, desperate first days after
Katrina. But who were those people? How did they get there? What happened
next? Here are the rest of their stories.

"How do you look at someone and force them to decide who to save? It was
just incredible the terror we saw on every face."

Lt. Cris Mandry, a SWAT officer for the New Orleans Police Department, had
performed rescue operations before. But nothing compared to what he and his
fellow officers saw Aug. 29 in the Lower 9th Ward.

"You can train all your life and never be prepared to see babies clinging to
their mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers sitting on hot roofs, or
hundreds of men and women just floating with their heads above the water,"
Mandry said. "I expected to see people; I never expected to see such a large
number of people."

On Katrina Monday, with a chain saw in hand, Mandry, Sgt. Todd Morrell and
Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann helped cut through piles of debris to get to the St.
Claude Avenue Bridge. From there they launched two flatboats and an
inflatable boat into the rising water. They estimate they ferried 600 New
Orleanians to safety that day -- then set back out at dawn Tuesday morning
and rescued hundreds more.

"There were hundreds and hundreds of people screaming for help," Mandry
said. "We were only able to get four or five at a time. The hardest part to
me was not the physical nature of what we were doing, but the inability to
do everything for everyone we wanted to help."

Mandry often had to plead with people, trapped in their attics but afraid of
falling into the water, to climb into the boat. He said he'll never forget
how their cold, wet bodies felt as they hung onto him.

At each stop the officers would put as many people into their boats as they
safely could. At some houses, the team had to leave some family members
behind.

"Always, always, we'd go back," Mandry said.

The faces and families soon became a blur to Mandry; there was no time to
exchange names or stories. But he says he'll never forget one little girl,7-
year-old Danielle Riles, who gently kissed his headset as he rode her to
safety. She didn't want to let go of him, he said, even as her family was
unloaded from the boat.

"The children, they were all so scared," Mandry said. "Their parents would
hand them over to us, and you could instantly feel how frightened they were
by the way they held onto you."

As the days passed and Mandry's primary mission turned from the adrenaline
rush of rescue to the emotionally draining work of recovery, the image of
the little girl stuck with him. But he wouldn't have time to dwell on the
whereabouts of her or her family. His Army National Guard unit, 20th Special
Forces, received orders to deploy to Iraq.

Mandry doesn't expect to return to New Orleans for another year. Upon his
return, he said, it would be nice to find out what happened to the couple
and the child. First, he said, he'll have to deal with the damage to his
Lakeview condominium.

"I am a New Orleanian, born and raised," Mandry said. "In my city's time of
need, I am thankful that God gave me the physical ability and chance to save
so many people."