Tony Marks/Ville Platte Gazette
A year ago at this time, South Louisiana was hit with devastating flooding that gripped most of the area. Out of the flood waters was born a group of volunteers called “The Cajun Navy.” It came about with a mission of rescuing by boat those residents who were stranded by the flood.
William Rozas of Chataignier was one of the local residents who went to lend a hand in the time of need. “I just have a knack for helping people,” he said. “Last year when we had our flood back home, I was in my boat with the Chataignier Fire Department rescuing people here and in Eunice, Vidrine, and L’Anse Meg. Once we got settled over here, we moved on to Baton Rouge.”
Hurricane Harvey formed this August in the belly of the Gulf of Mexico and wreaked destruction all along the Texas coast. In its path was the City of Houston. The city got pounded with rainfall this past weekend as the hurricane stalled overhead. To the rescue of the city’s residents came “The Cajun Navy” along with the local band of volunteers.
“As soon as I heard that Houston was getting hammered, I called a bunch of buddies asking if they wanted to go,” Rozas said. “It was the same crew as last year that went to Baton Rouge.”
Going along with Rozas to Houston were his cousin Nick Rozas of Chataignier, Caleb Foret of Ville Platte, Josh Jones of Chataignier, Marty Veillon of Vidrine, and Hunter King of Pine Prairie.
“It’s something you have to do,” Nick said about the importance of helping others. “It’s just in my blood that when I see someone helpless and stranded I just have to help them and do what I can to get them to a better place. If I was in that bad of a situation, I’d want someone to help me.”
Foret shared similar sentiments. “I’ve always been inspired to help people,” he said. “I served time in the Army National Guard, and I serve on the Evangeline Parish Volunteer Fire Department. I guess it’s always been a passion of mine to help people.”
“This year while I’m self employed, I had plenty of time and decided I was to go and make a difference over there,” he continued. “I went out based on a need to serve others or a desire to serve others.”
William and his crew first went to Dickinsonville which is located up the coast from Galveston Island. The crew then went to East Houston. According to William, “that’s where the most help was needed.” He went on to say, “People were constantly asking for help, and people were losing everything. The roads were shut down. We had helicopters from the Coast Guard and Black Hawks literally on top of us pulling people out of the water.”
“It was bad, and it wasn’t getting any better,” Nick said. “There was constant rain and constant flooding.”
Foret described the extent of the flooding. “I think there seemed to be a lot of isolated flooding,” he said. “We would put our boat in the water and hit two neighborhoods, and then we might drive two miles where it was dry. Then we would hit another bad spot.”
“We were riding in a boat and looked down on the top of a vehicle,” he added. “We realized it was a Tahoe that was almost totally submerged.”
During their time in Houston, William and other locals embarked on boat rescue missions. According to Nick, “Once we got the boat in the water, we went to where people were stranded in neighborhoods and started picking them up and bringing them to a high point where they had medical personnel to help gather a bunch of people up in a high dry place.”
“We got there and launched our boats, and we rescued people from their flooded homes,” Foret said. “We were getting them out and getting them to an evacuation point.”
Foret described the perils that he and the other locals faced while rescuing others. “There was a time when I thought water was going to come in my truck because when we looked out the window the water was up the doors,” he said. “Once we got to safety, we thought that we could stay there and try to help one more day. After looking at the map and seeing every surrounding town from Houston to the Louisiana line was flooding, we had to make the call. We came home even though we really didn’t want to.”
He went on to describe the state of things when they left. “It’s heartbreaking because there’s literally hundreds of thousands of people walking around, and you can just see in their faces that hopelessness,” he said. “They don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re being put on a bus with some of their family, and the rest are strangers. They are shipped off to somewhere, and the last thing they’ve seen was four feet of water in their house.”
While the six locals were only in Houston for a short time, the people that they impacted were very thankful. According to William, “They were very happy to get out where they were and into our boat so we could bring them to dry land.”
For Foret it was a humbling experience. “I felt very fortunate to be a part of that because it really showed me how bad things can get, and it also showed me how much good people are still in this world,” he commented. “It was a heartwarming experience to just go and know I did my part. I did what I could do, and I actually helped people on the worst day of their lives to get to shelter.”
“To see their reactions and to interact with these people was amazing,” he added. “It made us feel like there’s no better thing that we could be doing. It just felt so right.”
William commented, “It’s something that we were very proud to be a part of.”