<TITLE>21. Par 196-205</TITLE>L-196 And I, shooting those waves. The dyke had broke up there, and, oh, my, the... just washing the city out. And I would give it all the juice that I could, and finally down across the alleys and through the places. And I got there close to where the old levee was, the water pouring through. And I heard someone scream, and I seen a mother standing out on the porch. And there was them big rollers going through like that. Well, I went on up this way as far as I could, and hit the stream and come back and got on that side. I had got my boat stopped just in time to tie it around the pillar, of the post, of the door post or porch post. And I run in and grabbed the mother and got her in there, and two or three of the children. And I undone my boat and got her to... back. Come out way down below, and got her over to the shore, about a mile and a half across the city, till I got her to the shore. And then when I got over there, she had fainted. And she had begin... she was screaming, "My baby! My baby!"

L-197   Well, I thought that she meant she had left the baby in the house. Oh, my! I took back again while they was trying to take care of her. And, I come to find out, it was... or she was wanting to know where her baby was there. There was a little fellow about three years old, and I thought she meant a little nursing baby or something.

L-198 And so I took back and got over there. And when I got that boat and got on the inside and couldn't find no baby, and the porch give away and the house went in. And I run real quick and grabbed the--the piece there that was floating my boat, got into the boat, and pulled that and loosed it up.

L-199   And it done got me out into the current of the main river then. And it was about eleven-thirty at night, and just sleeting and snowing. And I grabbed a hold of the starter string and I tried to pull the boat, and it wouldn't start, and I tried and it wouldn't start, and I tried again. Getting farther in that current, the falls just below me. And I was trying real hard, and I thought, "Oh, my, here--here's my end! This is it!" And I'd try real hard. And I said, "Lord, please don't let me die a death like this," and I'd pull and I'd pull.

L-200 And it come back to me, "What about that bunch of trash that you wouldn't go to?" See? Uh-huh.

L-201   I put my hand back on the boat, and I said, "God, be merciful to me. Don't let me leave my wife and baby like this, and them out there sick! Please!" And I just kept pulling like that, and it wouldn't start. And I could hear the roaring down there, 'cause I... Just a few minutes, and, oh, my, that would be it. And I said, "Lord, if You'll forgive me, I promise You I'll do anything." Kneel in that boat there, and the sleet hitting me in the face. I said, "I'll do anything that You want me to do." And I pulled again, and it started. And I turned all the gas on it I could, and finally got into the shore.

L-202 And I went back to find the truck, patrol truck. And I thought of... There was some of them said, "Say, the government just washed away." My wife and baby in there, both babies.

L-203   And I took out for the government as hard as I could, and water was standing about fifteen feet deep all through it. And there was a major there, and I said, "Major, what happened to the hospital?"
Said, "Now, don't be worried. You have anyone in there?"
I said, "Yes, a--a sick wife and two babies."

L-204 He said, "They all got out." Said, "They're in a freight car and they've headed towards Charlestown."

L-205 I run, got in my boat and... or got in my car, and my boat in the back of it, and run out there to... And then the creeks had come down about two and a half or three miles wide. And all night long I tried to... Some of them said, "The car, the freight car, washed off the tracks out there on the trestle."


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