quote:
As I have stated many times, my late fiance was Captain with the New Orleans Fire Dept. I know that his hourly pay was about $12-$15 an hour. Many FF (firefighters) have 2nds jobs, run their own business on the side, or take extra shifts or private duty jobs to support their families.

He worked 24/7 during Katrina and never got the majority of the pay he should have for that. He slept for weeks on a dirty, wet floor at the firehouse after Katrina.

His "home" firehouse had yet to be repaired years after Katrina and the FF had to triple up and work in the few firehouses that were habitable (and they were barely habitable at that!) Dennis Leary and other charity group rebuilt others because the city just refused to.

For months after Katrina he took extra shifts which were going into the muddy,moldy, houses full of rats, rotten food, dead animals and such, looking for the dead bodies of people who had last been reported as being there.

It was unbearably hot, smelled like hell and he had to wear a hazmat suit which made it even hotter. But he did it with no complaining, just as his crew did.

The men of the NOFD deserve better than the way they have been treated. I wish Mitch would spend some time in general population in prison!!

I'm not getting into this with you because you're good people but spare me the bullshite. There were a shite load of people out there during and after Katrina. NOPD, EMS, doctors, nurses, mental health workers, security, etc, and none of them sent in a fricking billable time sheet for their work during that time. Only NOFD feels the need to remind the public that they were there. But no, throw 40 years of corrupt bullshite all on Landrieu's shoulders.

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Posted by gingerkittie

Member since Aug 2013

2675 posts

Posted on 9/4/15 at 5:44 pm to MightyYat

quote:
I'm not getting into this with you because you're good people but spare me the bullshite. There were a shite load of people out there during and after Katrina. NOPD, EMS, doctors, nurses, mental health workers, security, etc, and none of them sent in a fricking billable time sheet for their work during that time. Only NOFD feels the need to remind the public that they were there. But no, throw 40 years of corrupt bullshite all on Landrieu's shoulders.

Oh I agree 100% there were so many others out there doing things that they would never be paid for and they did them because they are good people who wanted to help, not because they expected a paycheck. I only focused on the FF part of it because that was the topic at hand.

My fiance would be the first one to tell you about all of the others who were out there in the trenches (so to speak) with him, exposing themselves to hazardous, filthy and traumatic conditions. He made many new friends from all over the US who came to help and asked for nothing in return.

I lived aboard the cruise ships with the NOPD, EMS, doctors, nurses, mental health workers, security, etc and saw the mental toll it took on them and how they simply repressed their emotions and went out everyday to do it all again. My respect for them is immeasurable.

Aside from the fact that many of them were never paid or even given credit for their contributions, they gave it their all. I often wonder how they are dealing with the after effects (mentally and health-wise) of all that they experienced and were exposed to.

10 years later, I still think of them and wonder how they are doing in their lives today and if they really understand how much their contributions meant to so many.

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