As A Family Hangs On For Life, Resuers Throw A Lifeline
Submitted:		N.O.V.A. December 2005
Source:			Times Picayune 12-04-2005

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"Our neighbors, we could hear them in their attic, and they were so afraid
to get down because they couldn't swim. We don't know if they ever made it
out. We barely made it out ourselves."

All during the day and a half that she spent clinging to the front porch of
her 9th Ward house, Audrey Walton wondered whether she, two of her daughters
and four of her grandchildren would survive the flood. They would have
evacuated if she'd had the money, but it was the end of the month. All the
bills had been paid. There wasn't much money left for food, let alone gas or
hotel expenses.

At one point during their ordeal, they considered putting the smallest of
the children in an ice chest and floating her to safe ground. But the wind
was too high and the water too rough.

The women and children grabbed a piece of a large tree to hang onto. Times-
Picayune photographer Ted Jackson spotted them from a distance and shot
their photograph, then ran to find someone with a boat to help. When he
returned, the family was gone and he feared the worst. He later learned that
a group of five young men had come upon the family and threw life preservers
to the women.

"If those boys hadn't come along we'd be dead. It was a crisis situation for
us at that point," said Walton, who is now living in Houston and reunited
with all of her children and grandchildren. "I am so thankful that God sent
those angels down to us. I couldn't point them out to you on the street to
save my life, but I will never forget what those young men did for me and my
family."

Once the family reached dry land, they walked for miles to the Superdome. It
was there that Audrey, Sabrina, Ricquel, Richelle, Dianca, Royianca and
Dortha would spend three more hellish days. Eventually, the family boarded a
bus and reunited in Houston with another of Audrey's daughters, Gail, who
had last spoken to her family as the water began to rise.

"It wasn't until a week later that I found out my family was alive," Gail
said. "I never thought they would make it out of the water. I just thank God
every day for the kindness those men showed them. People should know there
were good people out there. People who cared enough to help save other folks
-- good people saved my family."