Hudson parishioner helps patrol in New Orleans
Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
HUDSON -- Last September, Ed Hanson, a Bloomington (Minn.) police officer and an active member of St. Patrick Parish in Hudson, traveled to the area ravaged by Hurricane Katrina to give respite to his fellow officers, because, he said, it was the right thing to do.
Hanson worked 12-hour shifts for 14 days straight as part of a contingent that included the Bloomington SWAT team, the St. Paul, Minn., SWAT team and officers from Minneapolis and Ramsey County, Minn. (Hanson and six other members of the Bloomington group had recently retired from the SWAT team, but not from the police force itself. The others were still active SWAT members.)
The group of officers constituted a strike force that was made up of five teams of 21 officers each. Hanson said it was hard for authorities to find the right SWAT teams to go to New Orleans, because the forces chosen had to be sizable.
They relieved fellow officers from New Orleans, who had not had a break or seen their families since the hurricane hit. These officers, perhaps 30 in number, had been working around the clock for weeks when Hanson and his crew relieved them.
Hanson and the cops were actually stationed across the river in Algiers, La., which experienced wind damage and storm sewer backups, but not the effects of a levee break. They camped in a parking lot adjacent to a school, which had no electricity, so they had to rely on generators and air conditioning units scrounged from officer's homes -- if they could get to them.
Still, the officers found it gratifying to help and were warmly received. "They absolutely gushed when they saw us," Hanson said. "Their gratitude was the best part."
One survivor gave them caramel apples, and another spent his entire day cooking red beans and rice for them in a makeshift pot.
"I would do it again in a heartbeat, if something like this happened to anybody," said Hanson, who also has been a longtime chairman of the St. Patrick parish council. "I told some of the officers that they should thank God for the opportunity to serve in such a way that was so life-changing." Hanson added that despite cramped sleeping, traveling and showering conditions, and a two-day trip one-way to get to the ravaged area, there was never a harsh word among members of their crew.
When they got to New Orleans they found homes covered with black mold. Things were especially bad in an area called the Ninth Ward, which Hanson said seemed like it would be virtually impossible to rebuild.
Hanson's group mostly patrolled the virtually vacant streets of the 180-square-mile New Orleans area, looking for looters. Hanson compared the grim and gritty scenes on the streets to a pair of sci-fi movies -- "Escape from L.A." and "Lord of the Flies."
However, they did have to respond to some SWAT calls.
One involved a man holed up in an old Wendy's restaurant, who said he had guns. The matter was eventually resolved without incident.
They rescued one man from a hole that he had made in the roof of his house -- a last gasp at fleeing the surging water.
Other calls eventually proved uneventful, included the recovery of a stolen semi-trailer truck, and the rescue of a young woman who had been lured to it by a criminal who fled the scene when Hanson and other officers arrived.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006