Through Thick and Thin (Anthony Rizzo)

Search and Rescue

Jazmyn

I've fought a lot of things in my life. The Taliban, domestic and foreign terrorists, corrupt governments, a virus, things we see and the things we don't. But I've never had to fight the weather before. I wasn't sure what to do or how to go about this. I didn't know what to expect and that terrified me. I'm no match for mother nature, never will be either. But I can always help after the fact.

Since we were still without power and Internet today was dedicated to search and rescue. The storm has past and beside a few sprinkles the sky was clear. The people who were able to make it to the shelter before or during the storm was safe. We were getting them food and blankets and trying to keep their belongings they have with them in their pockets. While they wait for the flood water to clear we go out to help the people who weren't so lucky or who thought they could withstand the wind and rains.

But as we float along the streets it's easy to see that this was a type of event that we won't be able to just blow past. This wasn't just a lot of rain, this was destruction to this beautiful city and people were suffering. You see kids toys floating down stream and it breaks your heart, you hope it wasn't their favorite toy. You hope that this didn't happen while they were sleeping and they couldn't get out. A natural disaster is a different kind of fight, one that no matter what you do you can't win. You can't bomb a tornado, you can't blow away a hurricane. You stand and you defend but you don't attack. And that's the hard part.

I probably shouldn't have been one of the people out on the boats. Anthony would kill me if he knew I was out here. But I'm taking advantage of the no power and Internet down here and doing what needs to be done. I can sit in a boat just fine, search and rescue is a little thin because they spent all day looking and it's night time now. Given my awful sleeping schedule it made most since for me to head this search and rescue. Finding people in the dark isn't exactly a walk in the park but a lot of people won't be able to wait until morning for a rescue. We've found dozens of people already but we know there's still more out here. Not everyone could get out in time, some people didn't have anywhere to go. Now it's time for us to do our jobs and save some people.

It starts to get late into the morning and the boat was starting to get full. Residents defect to the top of their houses so we can find them easier as they wave around flashlights. We were about to head back until I hear something that wasn't coming from the water hitting things.

"Wait" I beg as I grab the arm of the guy driving the boat. He slows it down until the engine shuts off.

It gets quiet enough that I hear someone crying out for help. I try and use the training I had for a land rescue in the water but it was a bit harder to find where the cry was coming from. The sounds of water crashing into things made it harder to find the source exactly. After all of us looking around for a few seconds I find a young man that had to be in his twenties hanging on to a tree.

"There, there's a man in that tree" I announce.

"I can get close but I can't get next to him while the boat is on, he'll get caught under it" the driver explains.

"How close can you get me" I question.

"5 yards with the boat on at best" he insists.

"That's close enough" I assure him.

So we turn the boat back on and ride over to him. I dig the rope I brought with me out of the bag I had. The current was strong and working against him so it might take a lot to pull him over with the boat being off. But I was confident in our abilities to successfully rescue him.

Once we were close enough the boat turns off again. But this time we stopped where the current was stronger not giving me a lot of time to pull him in.

"Please help me" the young man begs as I slowly stand up in the boat. We had three people already in here under the blankets trying to keep warm.

"Listen, we don't have a lot of time so you have to work with me" I insist.

"Okay" he whimpers.

"I'm about to throw the rope to you. As soon as you can reach it wrap it around your body then hold on to the end. We can't stop the boat in this current so I'm going to have to pull you in while it's moving" I explain.

"What if the current takes me" he questions.

"You can't think about that. You have to trust me" I insist.

"Alright" he nods.

So I toss the rope out and he easily catches it. As fast as he can, he wraps the rope around his body. As soon as he is done I start to pull him in. He wasn't a big guy but the current made it hard for me to bring him in. Luckily I had been working on my upper body a lot since I got shot in the leg and I was slowly getting him closer to the boat.

He finally gets close enough and the other people help pull him in. As soon as he was out of the water the boat gets turned back on and we head back to camp. We cover the young man with blankets and calm him down a little. I just get him to talk and not think about what just transpired.

"Are you from here" I ask him.

"Yeah. My family left a few days ago to get away from the storm and I was supposed to keep things safe here. I'm afraid everything we had in the house, it's gone" he whispers.

"The most important thing they had in that house, is sitting right here next to me. I know you wanted to try and save all the memories and valuables you have, but none of that is more valuable than your life. I'm sure your family will be more than happy to have you here if that means they don't have the rest of their things" I assure him.

"I feel like I failed" he sighs.

"We're no match for Mother Nature. We can do anything and it would be enough to stop her. But the fact you're still alive, that proves that you are stronger than what she threw at you" I insist.

He gives me a weak smile as he stares up at me. I can tell he was still scared, still not sure if he's out of the clear yet. "What's your name" I ask him.

"Aaron" he says.

"Well Aaron, we're going to get you back safe and we're going to get you back to your family" I promise him.

We arrive back at the shelter and we get everyone who needs dry clothes some clothes and a warm meal. It wasn't too cool down here but being wet doesn't really help.

I use my crutches to get around because my leg was sore from being in the boat most of the night. I find Aaron and check on him to make sure he was okay.

"You're Jazmyn, aren't you" he asks me.

"That's me" I admit.

"I thought that was you, I knew it for sure when I saw you on crutches. My family and I think you're a hero" he claims.

"Not a lot of folks down here see me that way" I admit.

"They're just lost. I was too for a while. But then you spend all this time in quarantine and nothing to distract you from the social issues we're facing it's hard not to see how bad of shape we're in. Our country is good hands with you" he insists.

"I'm just doing my part for my people" I insist.

"We don't deserve you, honestly. I mean I'm happy that you're here, I could have died out there easily. But you're doing so much for everyone near and far. We're lucky to have you" he claims.

"And I'm happy to be here" I smile.