I was working about a mile in from the water in Bay St Louis, Waveland, and Gulfport. I also have a CD with about 1,000 images that were pooled from everyone with a camera, and I threw in a few internet pix as well.  I volunteered with a group of 12 to go into the worst hit area to get some help to the folks down there. Interviewed people, made them prove they lived in the devastated area, and gave them a check. 1 person got $360, a family of up to 5 got $1,365 right on the spot.  This was fine until the word got out to the folks from Baton Rouge (all had gold teeth and lots of tattoos) who were obviously trying to perpetrate some fraud for the dollars. They had lists of kids names and ages- but they couldn't tell us when they were born, or what schools they attended, and nobody had photos of their kids in their wallets.  Interesting. The spotlight has always been on New Orleans, and while they did have some damage, it was mostly from flooding. On one of our days off, a group had lunch and dinner in the French Quarter--they were back in business and unaffected.   Where I was, the houses got both flooded and blasted off the face of the earth. Nothing left except maybe the foundation and front concrete steps.  There was a wall of water around 50 feet high that washed in and put Rt 10 underwater, 8 miles inland.  When it washed back out, all the houses broke up and was turned into a sea of debris.  The second wall of water was 30 feet high, and it did even more damage.  Then Rita hit while I was down there, and we got wind, rain, and tornadoes. Lotsa people drowned.  Buildings are gone.  Roads are undercut and gone. Imagine- all the leaves were stripped from the trees, and many trees were uprooted- huge old trees. They ran razor wire along the railroad tracks to keep animals (abandoned house pets, etc.) from eating unretrieved bodies in the wiped out area that had not yet been thoroughly searched.  They retrieved 4 bodies from the roof of the Kmart across the street from our workplace when I was down there.  All traffic control lights were inoperative, no power, water, or food. Saw lots of accidents- people get stupid when the lights are gone, and don't seem to know how to handle intersections safely.  Exit signs along Rt 10 were gone--blown away--made it a challenge to figure out stuff.  I recommended they equip all vehicles with NeverLost or similar easy to use GPS capability.  All businesses and restaurants were wiped out.  Trees and power lines down all over the place- too much damage to really begin to deal with.  The Navy Seabees brought huge bulldozers in and dozed all the streets- they were covered with broken cars, the occasional misplaced upside-down house, and an assortment of broken up cars.  Boats were stuck up in trees, as were some cars.   Got washed up in the massive waters that inundated the whole area. Across the street (where the Kmart was) a medevac hospital was setup in the parking, lot, so the constant in and out of military and other helicopters made it seem like a combat zone.  We had medical staff in the tent next to ours.  We had people walking up from the devastated area holding broken arms, gashes, all kinds of injuries, and we found the medics for them--most everyone was really busy, and it was sort of chaotic at times. We even had mental health folks regularly checking on our status throughout the days- it was so horrendous, hearing about people losing not just everything they owned, but family members as well.  I would sit one-on-one across a table from these folks, and they were absolutely devastated- no place to live, out of baby formula for children, no diapers, no water, no food, no money, no car, no job, no nothing. It was almost unrecognizable as being America-looked more like a 3rd world war-torn country. Even had a constant flow of military vehicles and personnel in uniform. These were all people just like you and me-professionals, retirees, business owners, artists, casino workers.  We gave away a million dollars a day in checks, and unlimited food (MRE's), water, ice, whatever we had to give, we gave.  Some of us even dug into our own pockets. Temperature was about 105 humidity around 90%, so had to be sure to drink enough, and give folks water who were waiting to talk to us to get their money.  Banks were all broken, so they had to hitch a ride to another inland town in order to cash them.  And they had to spend the money outside of this area where stuff was still undamaged enough to be functional. ATM's were not working.  Telephones were not working.  Cellphones were not working (towers blown over).  We had to get gasoline from the state fuel depot (free) and be sure our gas tank was full before coming into our work area.  We had tons of law enforcement- State police from Virginia, US Border Patrol, US National Guard, Mississippi State police.   All armed.  We had a riot back at the Gulfport location earlier, and had to close it down.  Too dangerous for us RedCross vols to be there with our blank checks. We had lots of firefighters and forest firefighters, too.  One group was made up of all Navajo Indians. 

I dehydrated twice.  The medfolks made me sit and drink 1 Gatorade to three waters until I peed.  It took a gallon and a half for me to get to that milestone. 

We started off sleeping in huge tents on cots inland at our makeshift HQ. Then Rita came along, and they dropped the tents and relocated all of us to the Navy Seabee base in Gulfport.  They put almost 700 of us in a huge warehouse on cots. Boys and girls together.  We had food brought in from a caterer from California that usually serves food to forest firefighters. Multiple 18=wheelers. and showers on wheels, too- one trailer for women, one for men.  Privacy was no part of the deal once in the shower area.Bathrooms were port-a-potty units. Probably fifty or more of them.

 The caterer had to provide 6,800 calories per day per person, following the contract they had with the government and just kept serving it that way while we were there.  Great food! Loads of it!

Towards the end, I was pulled into safety and security, working with the cops.  I also shot photo ID badges for Red Cross vols. Nice way to help decompress from all this stuff.  It was not easy for me to do these three weeks. It redefined my envelope for what I could tolerate, and how I could function in the midst of total chaos.

But, the folks I worked with on this assignment are all a very close bunch as a result. Living in fear and uncertainty is an amazing laboratory.  We saw many people leave because it was just too much for them.(and they weren't in the worst areas).

I got a haircut on base- $6.00- and it was quite short, but felt really good in all that heat!  We were given privileges a the PX on base-Didn't get too much stuff there- a genuine "US NAVY SEABEE" Shaving kit.

I was very glad to leave at the end of my tour.  I have mixed feelings about it all, though. Kinda like leaving a job only half done.  The people I stay in touch with down there are still living in tents or under tarps, or in camping trailers.  They are all mostly getting runarounds from their insurance companies who don't want to pay. And long waits for FEMA to do their inspections  Some are leaving who had retired there (a really beautiful place) because they don't want to put up with the reconstruction and length of time it will take to get back to "normal" what ever that will now become.

I will not forget Katrina.

Next time when I do something with Red Cross, maybe it will be (ham) radio related.