Hero #061: Jabbar Gibson … (04/03/16)
As Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the coast, sixteen year old Jabbar Gibson and a friend decided to hunker down in a motel down the street from his home in the dilapidated Fischer public housing complex. The rain and wind were so fierce that the windows blew out as they huddled inside … The next morning, things were already pretty bad even before he and his neighbors starting hearing reports about the breach in the levees on the other side of the Mississippi River. Slowly but surely, nearby neighborhoods — the Ninth Ward, Bywater, Mid-City — were all being swallowed by floodwater. After two days without power or food, and no assurances that anyone would come help them, Gibson and a small group of friends started thinking of ways to escape. Eventually, they found about a dozen yellow school buses parked in a barn, with keys hanging on a door inside an unlocked office. They checked the numbers on the keys and matched them to the buses. It took about a half hour to find a bus that would start. It turns out that Orleans Parish school bus No. 0232 had been left behind with a full tank of gas. “I learned how to [drive the bus] right then and there,” Gibson said, a smile creasing his face. A handful of other friends and neighbors managed to get buses running as well, and they all headed back to Fischer to help others who’d been stranded. After his rescue mission received the green light from a local police officer (“Just get behind the wheel – and don’t stop”), Jabbar ended up transporting over 70 people to safety, driving them all the way to the Houston Astrodome, where his was the very first bus to arrive. Even with little space to spare, Gibson ended up stopping several times along the way to pick up others who needed a ride. “I just couldn’t leave them behind,” he said … Many passengers were in emotional and mental distress from the previous few days. Others were sick or disabled and in need of immediate medical attention. At least a couple were pregnant. All of them were saved by the selfless courage of Jabbar Gibson.
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