The Cajun Navy may not be a traditional humanitarian aid group, but the informal collection of volunteers saved lives when they arrived to Port Arthur, Texas in Hurricane Harvey’s wake. A new GQ exposé brings us inside the rise of vigilante disaster relief, the dozens of small outfits in Louisiana who come to the rescue in the absence of properly-funded government state and federal institutions. The Cajun Navy was headquartered during Harvey on a picnic bench outside of a Costco, and sent boats of volunteers to those trapped by the rising water in Texas. With disaster relief programs suffering budget cut after budget cut and recognition of loose organizations like the Cajun Navy increasing, article author Miriam Markowitz predicts vigilante disaster relief will only grow in relevance.
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