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Award of Excellence
Bruce Chambers The Orange County Register
"Katrina Rescue"
Specialist Alfredo Ramos, a National Guard soldier
from a San Diego unit, center, lifts Edgar Hollingsworth, 74, onto an
ambulance gurney in front of his home. New Orleans Medics, National Guardsmen
and members of the FEMA California Task Force 5 Search and Rescue team of
Orange County, Calif., surround the man who was rescued 15 days after
Hurricane Katrina ravaged his New Orleans neighborhood. Tuesday, just before
noon, the medical team from the California Task Force 5 Search and Rescue
team responded to a medical call of a man found in his Broadmoor District
home. They treated Hollingsworth on the scene for severe dehydration and
transported him to the hospital. Members of the National Guard, 2-185
artillery, based in San Diego, Calif. spotted Hollingsworth through his front
window and assumed he was dead but entered his home to check and found him
barely alive. In doing so they violated a FEMA rule forbidding forced entry
into private homes. Earlier in the day, a FEMA rescue team had knocked on Hollingsworth's
door and moved on. Hollingsworth died two days later with his family at his
beside at Ochsner Hospital.
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