As Texas’ Harvey storm developments — including a levee breach and an impending third landfall — continue at rapid pace, a few moments of affirmation can still be found. One would be the enduring presence of Louisiana’s volunteer Cajun Navy, who posted this wonderful photo on Facebook. The image features the same group of ladies who were featured in a shocking viral photo, which showed them waist-deep in a Dickinson nursing home. The group is now all dry and (mostly) happy, which is something that one hopes will soon be the case for as many Harvey victims as possible.
As a refresher (although this image is burned into the public consciousness right now), here’s the disturbing photo that caused jaws to drop.
https://twitter.com/DividendsMGR/status/901805509950541825
There are some new updates on how this photo happened. As CBS News reports, the nursing home owner’s son-in-law, Tim McIntosh, felt panicked because he and his wife, Kim, saw no other way to get the word out. Kim stated, “We were desperate, desperate to get someone there and given we couldn’t get through to anybody I felt no one was listening.” And within a few hours, the patients were rescued, thanks in part to the Internet.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has spoken with a woman named Susan Bobrick, whose sister, Ruth (age 64) appeared in the photo with a blanket over her shoulder. Bobrick says she believed in the image’s authenticity as soon as she saw it, for she’d visited the center on numerous occasions. Further, she explained why the patients may have looked so “calm”:
“They did look sort of calm in that photo, but at this point in time they had been in that water for several hours. When you get people that are in wheelchairs, or cannot get around, or they have walkers, if the water kept coming up, what were they going to do?”
Indeed, it was the “calm” vibe of the patients that made some people wonder if the image was real, but those tough ladies had buckled down for hours already. Meanwhile, one journalist who covered the nursing home evacuation tweeted out a screencap of his inbox. The Galveston News‘ John W. Ferguson says everyone still feared for the photo’s “background cat” (of course): “Journalism lesson: Always ask about the cat, or else you’ll pay.” Indeed.
Journalism lesson: Always ask about the cat, or else you'll pay. #GalvNews #Harvey pic.twitter.com/RhAGpVdbns
— John Wayne Ferguson (@JohnWFerguson) August 29, 2017
(Via Louisiana Cajun Navy on Facebook, New York Times, CBS News)