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Elderly Expat Tells of Hurricane Horror
By Leigh Sales in Kinder, ABC Online Australia
September 7, 2005
Keith and Grace Ann Faulkner are together again
after Mr Faulkner's not-so-smart decision to ride out the storm.
Photo by the Courier Mail
Seventy-five-year-old Australian Keith Faulkner survived for five days trapped alone in his New Orleans home after Hurricane Katrina and massive flooding devastated the city.
He was rescued and taken to a retirement home in rural Louisiana.
Mr Faulkner is very frail, suffering from prostate cancer.
He had convinced his wife, Grace Ann, to leave him, never imagining the hurricane would be so devastating.
He was then trapped alone for five days, although he had some food and water.
He was rescued when he heard his neighbours arrive home to salvage some of their possessions.
"I got my car alarm going, you know the beeper. I pressed that because as soon as they heard that they knew something was up - they came in and got me out," he said.
The Faulkners were reunited today.
"I looked better today than I did the day we married. She does too," he said.
The elderly man has lived in the United States for 37 years, but has maintained his Australian citizenship.
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