Conklin and Billau got around in a car which Justin marked with duct tape to ID themselves to military police who were having a problem with looting. The tape helped. Billau said, "Luckily we had the TV markings on the vehicle so they were at ease. They still had their guns out and said 'You need to go down here'."
Lee and Justin entered New Orleans after that after nearly everyone had been rescued from being stranded on rooftops. Lee said, "We went in there and there weren't any people. It was a ghost town. We started basically just rolling the camera and I started narrating. That's when the story of the hurricane really came to light for us."
The scary part was getting out of New Orleans safely and without a flat tire. Justin remembers, "We're trying to get out of the city and it's dark and they don't have power. And we didn't have GPS so we're just trying to feel our way through these streets with the headlights of our vehicle."
The two then headed to Mississippi. Lee remembers meeting the Scvitovich's in Biloxi. He says, "Justin and I were just walking along the coast and we saw this old couple. They were walking on what was their house, the foundation."
Justin remembers a church along the coast, the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. It was destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969 and later rebuilt. Then, 36 years later, the church was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Justin was inspired by what he saw next. "Then in the side of the lawn, there were a bunch of folding chairs set up and they were getting ready to have service the next morning. The second hurricane taking out the church didn't interrupt their faith."
Lee and Justin also met doctors from the Toledo area. The team, led by Dr. Richard Paat of Maumee, treated more than a thousand hurricane survivors.
Now five years later, Lee and Justin watch the progress being made. Justin says, "Having been five years, you'd think the recovery would've come farther than it has. They still have a lot of work to do." Lee adds, "We're pretty fortunate here. We certainly have tornadoes, but nothing that has the magnitude that a major hurricane can bring."
