Community Responders: The Mathieu Brothers
Rick Mathieu, the leader of the Soul Patrol (consisted of his brother Manny and a group of men from the 7th Ward who stood for the storm and mounted their own community rescue efforts) feeding a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team, Arizona Task Force One from Phoenix, and a US Fish & Wildlife Team from Lafayette, LA chicken gumbo on 9.3.05.
Rick is standing on a roof of a Epiphany Catholic Church Rectory, the Soul Patrol’s base camp for ten days. The AZTF-1 members are standing in boats. That’s how high the water was in the 7th Ward. We all heard the stories of “New Orleanians” shooting at rescue workers, but have you heard the stories about New Orleanians feeding rescue workers? Rick and Manny’s flooded Duel Street home is twenty feet to the right of this photo.
Rick and his brother Manny were little boys during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Their father, an outdoorsman and fisherman, launched his boat and began rescuing his 7th Ward neighbors. Forty-years later, Rick and Manny would do the same…
On 11.26.05, Rick Mathieu took a trip to Central Louisiana to visit his son Little Rick. On the way back to New Orleans Rick stopped in Lafayette to reunite with USFWS Biologist / Katrina responder Dave Soileau; who introduced Rick to his wife Karen who also worked for USFWS. They hugged, swapped Katrina war stories and said goodbye.
