Local RedCross volunteers remember Katrina - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(08/28/12) - As Hurricane Isaac creeps toward land, Mid-Michigan Red Cross volunteers who helped Gulf Coast victims following Katrina recall the massive storm, forever etched in their memories.

One local volunteer, Marsha Robinson, was sent in several months after Katrina hit. "Refrigerators on the highway. I even saw a dead pig on a major highway down there. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing some disaster."

Dick Beauchamp, a 14-year-Red Cross veteran, remembers the debacle at the Superdome, as thousands of residents who thought they could ride Katrina out, sought shelter.

"It was a good idea at the time, but basically the idea was, because this was going to be over by tomorrow or the next day. And when it lasted a few weeks, it becomes totally unmanageable."

Beauchamp's wife Carole described how, at the time, she had to put her personal feelings in order to do her job. "It's a matter of my training kicking in and being able to distance myself enough that I'm able to handle them. But, it did take me quite a while to get over Katrina myself."

In the seven years since Katrina, a new levee system has been put in place to hold back flood waters. The system could very well see its first major test as Hurricane Isaac pushes ashore.