美国国家公共电台 NPR In Orange, Texas, Neighbors And Strangers Unite To Help Flood Victims

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Now to Houston and the devastation¹ that city is facing due to Hurricane Harvey. Volunteers have come from all over to help - neighbors and strangers working together. NPR's Debbie Elliott takes us now to meet some of the people who have loaded up their boats for rescues and packed trailers full of food and water to aid people who no longer have a home.

DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE²: Epi Mungui is overseeing a makeshift distribution center in the middle of a sweltering-hot strip center parking lot in his hometown of Orange, Texas.

EPI MUNGUI: We've got water. People have been bringing canned food. We've got diapers. They keep coming in. they keep going. Baby food - we've got formula.

ELLIOTT: This parking lot is where the National Guard and volunteer rescuers first brought people displaced by floodwaters, a sort of hub for evacuations Mungui says word spread, and donations started pouring in.

MUNGUI: It's heartbreaking. But you know what? It's also amazing to see people come together in a time of distress³. I wish we could be like this all the time.

ELLIOTT: Orange is near the Louisiana line. And the so-called Cajun Navy has been in full force here, people like Van Lorena.

VAN LORENA: We rescued this neighborhood Wednesday morning. And then after they got all that done, we said, we'll just come back and bring them. So we brought everything from tampons (laughter) to batteries to diapers. You name it.

ELLIOTT: He's from Denham Springs, La., which was devastated⁴ by a flood last year. He says it was an easy call to come help Texans in the same fix.

LORENA: Well, you couldn't not. I'm not the kind of guy that can sit there and watch it on the news and not do nothing.

ELLIOTT: More Louisiana folk are in the kitchen - really, just a trailer and a tent stocked with a grill⁵, a smoker⁶ and a giant gas-fired kettle.

(SOUNDBITE OF SIZZLING)

ELLIOTT: They're making lunch.

RANDY MELERINE: (Singing) Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo - hey.

Here you go, baby.

ELLIOTT: People are lined up by mid-morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: What are we eating today, brother?

MELERINE: Twelve o'clock, we're going to have some jambalaya and pulled pork sandwiches.

ELLIOTT: Randy Melerine hands out cake and fruit until the noon meal is ready.

MELERINE: You want some cake, baby?

ELLIOTT: Rita Deal eats a slice.

RITA DEAL: Got water in my house. So I'm hungry (laughter). I live alone.

ELLIOTT: She's a 70-year-old cancer patient and has been staying in her soaked home with no electricity ever since the water woke her early Wednesday.

DEAL: I heard something go blub, blub, blub, blub at the end of the sewer⁷ line. And it was coming up through both commodes.

ELLIOTT: She's weary of the thought of mucking out.

DEAL: I went through Hurricane Rita and lost everything. Here I go again. I'm too old to start again.

ELLIOTT: After lunch, she sorts through boxes, getting a toy for her dogs, some bottled water and packs of crackers⁸ to take back home. More supplies are coming, says Gary Hill, the manager of the Market Basket grocery store next door. He's become the unofficial commander of this operation.

GARY HILL: This parking lot has been a control center.

ELLIOTT: Hill's been sleeping on a beanbag chair at the store. A tear rolls down his cheek as he talks about all the officials and volunteers who have come to help in Orange.

HILL: They're taking care of us. Really wonderful people. It's about working together as a team 'cause you know what? We're all the same in the eyes of God.

ELLIOTT: Outside, Troy Hueschen is overseeing the makeshift kitchen staffed by two Catholic men's clubs from Slidell, La., just outside New Orleans.

TROY HUESCHEN: We've been through it with Katrina. So we're here to serve the people, and we all need to stick together. That's what Americans do. That's what we do.

ELLIOTT: Charles Sam is having lunch.

CHARLES SAM: I appreciate it. I appreciate it to the fullest. I mean, you know, you don't find this too many days. You know, most of the time, everybody's is out for themselves.

ELLIOTT: Sam's house flooded, so he stuffed a black, plastic garbage bag with his meds and a few personal belongings⁹ and is waiting here in the parking lot to be evacuated¹⁰ to an emergency shelter in Alexandria, La., because, like communities all across southeast Texas, his neighborhood is uninhabitable. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Orange, Texas.

1 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

4 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

5 grill   

n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问

参考例句：

• Put it under the grill for a minute to brown the top.放在烤架下烤一分钟把上面烤成金黄色。
• I'll grill you some mutton.我来给你烤一些羊肉吃。

6 smoker   

n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室

参考例句：

• His wife dislikes him to be a smoker.他妻子不喜欢他当烟民。
• He is a moderate smoker.他是一个有节制的烟民。

7 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

8 crackers   

adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘

参考例句：

• That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
• We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

10 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。