Christina Elghazi
Oral History Report
Interview Coding
Reginald Cryer
1. Please give me your full name:
Reginald Cryer
2. What was your position in the police before Katrina?
Reginald Cryer is a former Marine and a veteran officer with the New Orleans Police
Department. At the time of the interview he was working in the department’s second
district.
3. Were you born in New Orleans?
Yes. I’ve lived here my entire life.
4. Did you spend your childhood and teenage years in New Orleans?
Yes. I grew up in the Uptown area.
5. What personal preparations did you make before the storm?
I got off at about 7:00 p.m. that Saturday night and to report back that Sunday morning
[unintelligible]. I went home. And I took off from [the lake]. Later on that night, the
winds started picking up. It was getting to a point where I felt that it was pretty much
time for me to – to leave the house because the wind was picking up and I had to be here
at the station for 7:00 a.m. I – I got as far as Baptist Hospital, which is located at 2700
Napoleon. I parked in the garage at the early part of the morning, about 1:00 a.m. so I
can – so I could report here for 7:00 in the morning. Somewhere that I wanted to be until
the storm passed over, to the Wednesday. We had Police Officers over there and also the
National Guard at that location. The storm pretty much subsided by that time a 7:00 in
the morning.
6. Where were you exactly when Katrina struck?
I weathered the storm at Baptist Hospital.
7. Did you have family in New Orleans before the storm?
Yes, I’m currently married with two sons.
8. Did they evacuate?
Yes. You know, me and my wife, we anticipated that the storm more than likely was
going to com e through to the City of Ne w Orleans. [unintelligible] hit the [golf course]
pretty hard. They left that – that Saturday and they headed to Baton Rouge with my inlaws, you know, stayed with her brother. Why – why stay in the city?
9. What did you see or hear that told you there might be a post-storm flood?
The water was all – about almost as high as some of those two-story homes. It was
just unbelievable, the water – that much water came into the city and sustained itself
over such a long period of time, for weeks. But all those periods of days, along with
some of my co-workers here, one of which was Sargent Thomas, and another Officer,
Rodney Thomas, who was a recruit at that time and just – just got out of Academy, I
believe. Yeah, he had just gotten out of Academy before – just before the storm –
storm started. So he had been going through his training phases with him, me,
Sargent Thomas, we’re actually using commandeered buses to go out into those areas
that had been affected by water, whereas individuals still could – could leave, walk –
walk out to the buses.
10. How did you know the levees had been breached?
We actually saw the water – saw the water – actually, I was inside the hospital stuck with
a doctor and, you know, we – you know, we saw along the street, you know. We didn’t
even equate it with it coming – coming up – coming from the [unintelligible] of the
drainage. So I went inside the hospital as we were talking a couple of hour s later after,
when it got to about 3:00 or 4:00, we heard a lady scream. She said, oh m y God, my car
is under water. So, around deClara Street, which is about the 4400 block and we saw that
the water was coming up but we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. It was
raining and the sun was out, you know, the sun shining. And, it wasn’t until later that we
found out that the levees had broken.
11. What did you see or hear that showed the city was in fact being flooded?
And when I got back to the station, I pretty much got a sense of what was going on. You
know, there was trees and debris all in the street. It was – it was like the hand of God just
swiped – you know, I mean, it’s about a dramatic picture of what the city actually looked
like. I mean, large trees all up and down St. Charles had been – had been just toppled
over. It was – it was amazing [unintelligible]. Being brought back in a Duelly to the
Police Station here in the Second District, you saw – I saw cars flooded. It wasn’t until a
couple of days later when some other agencies came with boats and the initiative was – is
to go forth in the water just to go check various houses to make sure people who – who
were going to stay made it – had provisions that lasted several days would want to leave.
12. What were your biggest challenges during the storm and the flood?
While we were there, we were able to assist the military, who were actually going forth in
trucks and some other law enforcement agencies which were actually going out in those
areas to houses where people were actually trapped. They couldn’t get out. And it was
just – I mean, it was like something off a movie. Man, we saw people they had brought
in, they were just dehydrated. So much water around, which was filled with filth, oil,
gas, you know, from the cars and God knows what else. I mean, I guess maybe they
didn’t want to venture out in the water. But to see so many people who were actually
dehydrated, lack of food over those few days, it was – it was just – just something, you
know, unreal.
13. Did any police get trapped in their homes?
You can’t visualize a levee breaking not coming across the upper portion of land,
you know, flooding. But we didn’t realize until later where we concluded, put two and
two together, that apparently it was coming through the drains. Once the drains filled up,
it was easy for the water to come across land. But that wasn’t a case with us. It just
continued to rise up through -- through the ground itself. Yeah, we were trapped with
nowhere to get out.
14. Were you trapped there? For how long?
I was trapped at Baptist for about three days. I was inside there about three days.
15. Did citizens help you rescue people?
I remember one guy by himself in a big v-shaped boat. If you know how
cumbersome it is to – to actually steer one of those things, he had actually came up to the
emergency ramp by the Clara Street side and he was actually paddling a v-shaped boat by
himself. And I said, man, I said, man, what – I said, where are you going? He said, I was
coming here to help get all the patients out of here. Because I thought the guy was a little
funny. He might have -- something -- you know, it might have been the defect of the
storm. So, when there was no more patients by the ramp, because there was a number of
them over a period of days, he turned the boat around and he headed – he headed East up
Clara and Napoleon. So I asked him before he – before he left, I said, man, where are
you going? He said, well, I’m headed over to the Superdome. And I said, do you know
how far you are away from the Superdome and you’re paddling a v-shaped boat? He
said, man, but I’m going to get there because I’m getting over there to go and help some
people, you know. And I thought, I said, man, this guy, you know, for whatever reason,
he may be doing that, you know, his mission is to get out there and help – help all these
people.
16. Did you see or meet or hear any of the local or national media people?
The media showed pictures of these people initially after the storm standing out asking
for help. But we’re talking about several days later where they were receiving help and
they couldn’t be moving out and leaving their property. It was just stacked high. You
know, [unintelligible], brief cases, shoes, clothing, all up and down Convention Center
Blvd. It was unbelievable, you know. It’s – it’s -- it just – you know, if people only
knew that the situation which had taken place after the storm, you know, how devastated
we [was]. But, as it stands, you know, things got so much better.
17. How did you calm yourself during your disaster work?
Mentally, this storm affected people, that flood affected people, where they thought that
he wouldn’t be able to get a bottle of water. Now, we’re talking about a competent
individual, you know. And, I guess, maybe he saw all this water and all this devastation
from a mere storm and, I guess, maybe just put yourself in a frame of mind that, you
know, all the city was lost. And that was pretty much the mindset of a lot of people who
were faced with this disaster that we were in. I mean, it was just unbelievable. Trees
down. Houses flooded. People marooned. People being picked up by the military.
People being picked up in buses. I mean, adults – not children; adults – who were just
marooned, you know, under these circumstances. And then, where were you going to
go? New Orleans itself is based on people who do not give up. And when they saw
themselves faced to leave, not knowing where to go, and not – without the means of
getting there, other than by being transported, I guess to some people, you know, that
devastation that’s just an unfortunate situation that they were in.
18. How did you get through the crisis?
I, myself, am a Marine. Well, I was a Marine. I’ve been a Police Officer for various
years. So it was kind of easy for me to cope, you know. But I see now that civilians who
were faced with that same situation, you k now, unfortunately couldn’t cope.
19. When did you have a chance to get back to your own home?
Actually, I actually lived in the Gentilly area, right on Elysian Fields around
Brutus. And my house got about nine feet of water, you know. But, you know, I’m still
going through the rebuilding process.
20. What did you find?
So, I had hoped that the fact that my house was up two and a half feet, would have
allowed my house not to sustain too much water damage. It wasn’t until, what, we’re
talking about well over two and a half weeks later, that I was actually able to see my
home and actually enter my home, that it being two and a half feet up, when I walked
inside, there was a water line that actually reached about half the level of my house. And,
you know, everything was just gone. It was just – it was dark and black, you know,
apparently from the humidity, causing mold. The water itself, which, I imagine in close
proximity to the Lake – that’s where my house was – had a lot of dirt, sediment and that
water line – it wasn’t – it didn’t actually look like a water line. It actually looked like a
sediment line. The sediment in the water itself just discolored everything from that level
down. All gone. And with the m old and everything, which was so thick, even on the
glass in my house -- you know, you could open the curtains and you could see the spots
all over the window. It was just that bad, man. It was just – it was just something that
was just unreal. You know, you never would have thought something like that would
have happened, and continued to happen over weeks, you know.
21. Where is your home now?
I’m currently living in the – back in the Gentilly area, close – in close proximity to my
home. I’m looking forward to getting back. The area’s still going through a rebuilding
process, I think. A lot of people [unintelligible] in trailers. But, it’s good. My boy’s
back in school, you know. My wife’s still here, you know, still part of the city.