Some Are Found, All Are Lost - Newsweek Hurricane Katrina Coverage - MSNBC.com

Some Are Found, All Are Lost - Newsweek Hurricane Katrina Coverage - MSNBC.com: "Sept. 19, 2005 issue - First, the ferocious wind ripped off huge chunks of their roof. Then huge waves surged through the Lower Ninth Ward and forced Lisa Moore and Larry Morgan and their 10 children into the broiling heat of the attic. For four days, the Moores struggled to survive on a couple of cans of fruit cocktail. Larry painstakingly squeezed drops of juice into the mouths of the youngest children, who were withering from dehydration. The desperate parents worked out a system: one remained in the attic with the kids while the other stood on the remains of the roof, waving a towel to attract the helicopters they could see on the horizon. 'We hollered and hollered,' says Lisa. 'Nobody stopped.' On Aug. 31, when a chopper finally hovered overhead, the family faced a nightmarish dilemma. 'I can only take five,' their rescuer shouted. The four youngest children, especially 2-year-old Irielle, were growing weaker by the hour, so Lisa and Larry handed them into the sky. Then Larry grabbed 13-year-old O'Neil, sent him up the rope ladder and urgently yelled one last instruction over the roar of the motor: 'Look after one another.'"