The Digital Journalist
© Ted Jackson/The New Orleans Times Picayune
MAMA D Dyan French Cole is known on the streets as "Mama d." She took it upon herself to care for those who stayed behind. Walking the streets of the Treme neighborhood, she yells out to them as they cower in fear behind closed doors. They're afraid of being discovered because they don't want to be shipped off to a shelter in Houston. "They're there," she says. "I know they're there. You just can't see them." She leaves food on doorsteps and sure enough, as we pass the same block a few minutes later, we see a shadow emerge and gratefully retrieve the gifts.