Ordinary People Go Beyond The Call

'Plain Joes' Motivated To Help With Rescues In Katrina's Wake

(CBS)  Getting people who are still in New Orleans out of harm's way in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is an overwhelming job that's been going on around the clock.

And in a city desperate for help, reports The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith, ordinary citizens are doing extraordinary things.

People such as Josh.

"They said … they needed boats," he tells Smith.

That's all Josh needed to hear to haul his boat 2½ hours to the waters in downtown New Orleans.

"(I've) come to save lives," he says.

It took just a few minutes for Josh to accomplish his mission, and hoist a wheelchair-confined grandmother from a flooded hotel to safety. Moments later, he did the same for her infant granddaughter. Her family had defied evacuation orders so they could stay by the grandmother's side.

"If I had to die out here to get my mom, I was willing to die for her," says Dollie Owens.

And they got out just in time. Kailey Owens, 74, was low on oxygen. Her grandsons fought to be brave.

Says one, "We tried to play games to get our mind off of drowning."

The Owens family is one of thousands in the city searching for higher, or at least safer, ground.

Some get boat rides, others go by truck, but most, such as little Khalifa Brousseau, are on foot. She tells Smith she's scared of all the water.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-lesau says "an overwhelming number of people" still need to be taken out of New Orleans.

He says it "looks horrible, like Beirut. It's a desperate situation here."

The situation is confusing, Smith says: "When (Josh) brought another wheelchair-bound woman to dry land, sheriffs there at first told (him) to turn around, before agreeing to take her for medical help."

Efforts like Josh's may be small but they're crucial, Smith says.

"There's still a massive need for rescue," Ben-lesau says, "but they are having a positive impact on the numbers out there."

Josh certainly made a difference for the Owens family, Smith says, though she's not certain where they wound up.

Organizing the volunteer boaters has actually become a logistical problem, Smith says.