CNN Photographer Mark Biello Helped Rescue More Than A Dozen Flood Victims

Veteran CNN photographer Mark Biello helped save more than a dozen stranded New Orleans residents in the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina.

“He’s convinced he did the right thing, the human thing. But Biello still felt he had to explain to CNN management why he wasn’t spending all his time working,” David Bauder writes. “Those conflicting feelings are partly why he hasn’t told his story publicly until now.” (CNN management has fully supported him.)

Hours before Jeanne Meserve told the world about listening to screams in the dark, Biello was in a boat in the Ninth Ward.

“Their first rescue was a husband and wife plucked from a roof, arguing with each other as they stepped onto the boat.”

“I was just recording and witnessing what they were doing,” Biello said. “It wasn’t until there were people submerged in the water that they asked for my help in pulling people onto the boat … they needed the physical strength to pull people up.”

The filthy New Orleans water gave Biello a serious chest infection. But he was back in Louisiana for Hurricane Rita. Here’s the rest of the story…