THE STORY OF STEVE & HURRICANE KATRINA

So there's this guy named Steve, who grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. Steve is what you would describe as an average guy, works construction, went to a tech/voc high school, a townie with oak leaf clusters. A solid citizen. A good man. Anyway, Steve fell in love with a woman from New Jersey named Linda. Linda at some point last year got fed up with Jersey and checked out to New Orleans. New city, new culture, new climate, new everything. Everything was cool, until Katrina showed up. Steve lost track of Linda, as did her family, as did the country, once her city got wiped off the map.

Steve sat and watched CNN like the rest of us, and called Linda repeatedly to no avail. He called her parents and asked if they had heard from her, and they hadn't, and were flipping out. Finally, two Sundays ago, he said enough was enough. He told his boss that he was heading to New Orleans to find her, and his boss cut him two paychecks to help him. He called Linda's father and said he was going to find her and bring her back if it killed him. He hopped a plane to the closest available spot, and poured himself into the worst, most dangerous place in America, to find the woman he loved.

Snapshots of Steve in the Big Easy:

And then, after days of searching, Steve found Linda. She was in a shelter, and was well enough given the circumstances. She lost her mind when she saw him, Steve from Lowell in the midst of the worst place in America. She didn't want to leave when he said they were going. "It's martial law," she said. "They're pointing guns at people." To hell with that, Steve told her, and took her out. They rowed, and walked, and got on a bus to Baton Rouge. He got her new clothes, got her a meal, and got her in touch with her parents. When Linda called her parents, her father asked to speak to Steve. "I don't know what to say," said Linda's dad. "I want you to come home. I want to shake your hand. I want to thank you." The next day, they got plane tickets home.

I hope Linda is smart enough to marry this man. I hope Steve didn't catch anything in that water. I hope everyone he helped rescue in his flat-bottom boat finds their own personal salvation as best they can. I hope the baby he rescued from between those bodies grows up to be a wise President of the United States. Thanks to Steve, of Lowell, Massachusetts, I hope.

~By William Rivers Pitt

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(SO THAT THE LARGEST PERCENTAGE OF YOUR DONATIONS WILL REACH THE PEOPLE WHO NEED YOUR HELP)

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