A NEW Orleans teenager saved dozens of people from the stricken city after commandeering a 70-seat school bus and driving it on a harrowing 300-mile journey to Houston.

Jabbar Gibson, who was reported by an American television channel to be just 15, was determined to leave New Orleans after two days wading alone through the filthy waters of the former red-light district of Storyville. Although he had never driven a bus in his life, he broke into a school and made off with the bright yellow vehicle.

What began as an act of sheer panic turned into what has been called a “magnificent journey” that placed Gibson among the heroes emerging from the horrors of Hurricane Katrina.

“I knew how to get over the fence, and where the keys were, so I felt it was worth the chance,” said Gibson, whose age was given by another channel as 18.

Although he had only eight passengers on board when he set off on Highway 10 towards Texas, Gibson picked up many more, young and old, stranded beside the road during the eight-hour journey.

“By the time we gotten here we had all kinds of folk on board, from mothers with young babies to people in their seventies and eighties,” said Gibson, speaking from Houston. “And when we ran out of gas we had a whip-round and everyone gave me enough cents to fill up and get here.”

The young driver, who was still looking for some of his friends and family, said he was not worried about the legal repercussions of driving without a licence.

“I don’t care if I get blame for it so long as I saved my people,” he said. “If we had stayed there, we would still have been waiting.”

There were other tales of heroics, equally colourful. Mark Perillat, 49, escorted his wife and children to nearby Lake Charles before returning to New Orleans to rescue the stranded by canoe. Among those he paddled to safety were a couple in their fifties who had stood in water for three days before he arrived.

Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport, 10 miles west of the flooded areas, was turned into a huge medical centre with doctors and nurses working 24-hour shifts to save those suffering from thirst and heat exhaustion.

Don Smithberg, chief executive of a local group of hospitals, said some of his staff had stayed awake throughout much of the crisis. “Some did not eat or sleep for days, they have been so busy,” he said. “This is one definition of heroism.”

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