The nursing home at Lake Arthur Place was in rough shape when rescuers arrived. The hallways smelled of feces. There was an old woman trembling in a wheelchair. Her feet were dangling in almost a foot of floodwater.
Harvey, then a tropical storm, was already affecting Port Arthur, a coastal refinery city in Texas.
Ben Husser, 45, had arrived along with other members of the “Cajun Navy,” a group of military veterans and fishermen, to help rescue locals.
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“What’s going on here?” Husser asked a nurse. “Why is she shaking? Is she cold?”
Husser found Jeff Rosetta, the nursing home’s administrator. Despite Husser’s offer of a ride out on several empty boats waiting outside, Rosetta refused.
“You don’t understand, I can’t give these people to you,” Rosetta said, according to Husser’s account. “I can only give them to the National Guard.”
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Rosetta then ordered Husser to leave. Husser refused. The discussion came to blows, and Husser drew a gun.
“I had to do what I had to do,” Husser said later. “We had to beat the crap out of Jeff — at least, I did.”
Two Port Arthur police officers arrived at the facility and determined the place should be evacuated.
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