Walk into any tourist trap in the French Quarter and you will see a shirt that reads -- "Hurricane Katrina came and all I got was a new Cadillac and plasma TV."
It's a jab at the New Orleans Police Department. In the days after the storm, some cops were accused of looting high-priced items like plasma TVs. Others, it is alleged, swiped some cars from a Cadillac dealer.
Sgt. Todd Morrell can look at the shirt now and summon a slight chuckle. But nothing about Katrina was a laughing matter for him and other members of the city's SWAT team in the days after Katrina.
Morrell went into the flooded Ninth Ward after the hurricane, and he was simply shocked. He and other officers had two small flatboats, along with a chainsaw he had borrowed from his father and forgot to return.
For days on end, he used that chainsaw to free residents trapped in attics. He and the other New Orleans officers who stayed on the job did this work out of the media spotlight. They worked around the clock before most reporters even made it to the mostly heavily flooded areas. Morrell is credited with rescuing hundreds of people.
Today, some long overdue recognition came his and his colleagues' way. All the New Orleans officers who stayed on the job received a pin honoring their dedication and hard work.
