Remembering Unsung Heroes of Katrina
COSTELLO: Be sure to check out our Web site, CNN.com, for the latest on this morning's top stories including, of course, those wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma. Authorities are very worried about New Year's Eve and fireworks. They're warning people please don't do that. A new fire broke out just outside of Oklahoma City this morning. Firefighters are busy at work. Also at CNN.com, the most popular story. This one about Valerie Plame. You know the former secret spy and her husband, Joe Wilson. Apparently they're in the airport. Their 5-year-old says loudly to everybody standing around, "Hey, my daddy is famous and my mommy is a secret spy." So Valerie Plame outed once again by her 5-year-old. And the other most popular story on CNN.com has to do a 16-year- old Farris Hassan. He's an American of Iraqi descent, and he wanted to go to Iraq just to find out what was up there. So he got $900 from his bank account, boarded a plane and he's in Baghdad this morning. His parents are very worried. Supposedly he's supposed to be home on Sunday. Read more about his adventure on CNN.com. And if you're about to head out the door for work or school, you can stay in touch with CNN and AMERICAN MORNING by of course, as I said, logging on to CNN.com. And of course, our pipeline video service, you can catch live, commercial-free news updates. It's all there at CNN.com/pipeline.</s>M. O'BRIEN: You know, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we told you many stories of the failings of our government and charities to answer pressing needs. And lost amid all that talk were perhaps some inspiring tales of people who gave their all and did make a difference in a timely way, and there are plenty of candidates. Here are just a few we met and we remember.</s>M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Picture a hero and what do you see? I envision a scene like this: an orange chopper lifting people up, literally and figuratively. The Coast Guard plucked more than 30,000 people from shingled islands in New Orleans, grabbing the old and the young first. (on camera) You couldn't always get back, could you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's correct, sir. On the way to or from, you'd see maybe someone else on the roof or more babies or other people and maybe more need. There might be a critical medevac that you had to go to.</s>M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): They are lieutenants Kayla Carlisle (ph) and Roberto Torres (ph), and they saved more lives than they can count. We also will never forget the horrors of New Orleans hospitals. Dark, dank and filled with heroes who transcended raw fear to keep others alive. Some sick babies were air-lifted to Birmingham with nurse Myra Waddell (ph).</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tuesday night was the first night that outside crews have been able to get in. They were just besides themselves with joy to actually see somebody actually come in and just -- and grief stricken all at the same time. They know that they had lost most everything.</s>M. O'BRIEN: There were heroes at NASA Space Shuttle Fuel Tank Production Plant. Katrina caused a lot of damage here, but it would have been worse were it not for 38 volunteers who rode out the storm. Two of them manned a pumphouse beside a brimming levee, adjusting the throttles to make sure the pumps didn't conk out. Joe Barrett was one of them.</s>JOE BARRETT, NASA VOLUNTEER: We all knew it was unsafe, but we knew that we had to try to stay out here and run it as long as we could.</s>M. O'BRIEN: There were heroes in the business world, as well. The Oreck family, who runs a vacuum cleaner business made famous in commercials...</s>DAVID ORECK, ORECK VACUUM CLEANERS: Hi. I'm David Oreck.</s>M. O'BRIEN: ... had a simple, clear, reassuring message in the wake of Katrina.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, you know, told our people after the storm that if you had a job before with Oreck before the storm you still have a job. I think as a family business, perhaps, we really do understand that it is a family, that it's a family of people who work together.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Families often found their own heroes. We will never forget the scene at Pat and Tim Edwards' place. They took in 50 relatives who had lost everything at St. Bernard Parish.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have any privacy any more. That's out. That's gone. I'll tell them this isn't no time for you guys to fight amongst each other. You know, you're in this thing together. You got a lot to be grateful for, because a lot of people died in that stuff and you didn't.</s>M. O'BRIEN: And there were others who filled the void. The woman they simply called Mamma D, the matriarch of the Seventh Ward. When the chips were down, and the water high, she organized search and rescue teams, carried the sick and elderly to shelters, turned her own flooded home into a relief center and a kitchen to gather and cook the food before it spoiled.</s>MAMMA D: Your freezer in the water, go get the food. We cooked that freezer full that day. You might have a chicken over here and you might have a seafood over there, red beans over here. We were feeding babies. We didn't have -- we didn't have no choice.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Like all good heroes, Mamma D is an optimist. She told us her neighbors are coming home.</s>MAMMA D: I know they're coming home. I'll tell you what. You come have some gumbo with me in about six months. I'll introduce you to my neighbors. I promise you I will.</s>M. O'BRIEN: I can taste that gumbo. That was just a few of the people, really. I mean, I think other people. I think of Gwendolyn Garley (ph), the woman we saw who evacuated her family. Sheriff Jack Stephens, St. Bernard Parish. Cecile Tevo (ph), a family that was under great duress, and she's helping the cops out there. Bobby Jindal, the congressman. And remember those three kids from Duke University who saw things on CNN, got in a car and just drove into the convention center?</s>COSTELLO: So many people did that.</s>M. O'BRIEN: I mean, it goes on and on. I just wanted to remind people that we weren't just focusing on the failings of FEMA. There were many, many stories and many people. These tragedies do -- it's a cliche, but they bring out the best and the worst in all of us. And a tip of the hat to all those who stepped up.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. A big thank you from us.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, the latest on the battle to contain those raging wildfires in Oklahoma and Texas. More than 200 homes destroyed. Many more in the line of the fire this morning. We'll have a live report for you ahead.