"The television just shows snippets of certain areas," said Dr. Michael Trobec of the wreckage left behind when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast Aug. 29. "You expect the trip to give you some insight, but it's so big, it's so complete, you can't grasp the devastation to the area."

Trobec returned to Warsaw three days ago after spending eight days in Mississippi. Since he is relocating his practice from North Manchester to Warsaw, he had some time on his hands and volunteered his services to the citizens of Mississippi.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency established a check distribution center in Brookhaven, Miss., and Trobec and several Fort Wayne physicians worked there first.

"We literally pulled people from their cars with heat exhaustion, heat stroke and dehydration. The heat index was around 105 to 110 degrees. There was no shade for thousands of people."

The doctors were sponsored and certified by the Mississippi State Department of Nursing after the Indiana Department of Health stopped their deployment.

In Warsaw and in Fort Wayne, the doctors received supplies and financial support without hesitation. Dr. Jeff Witt of Fort Wayne started making some telephone calls. Terry Hand of Hand Industries provided the group with transportation - two trucks and an RV for the 16-hour trip.

Brookhaven is in Lincoln County, Miss., about 100 miles north of New Orleans. Many residents of Louisiana's St. Bernard's Parish congregated there.

The FEMA station was set up on the Lincoln County Fairgrounds. Checks for $1,500 were dispensed to people displaced by the Category 4 storm.

The group moved on to Long Beach, along the Gulf Coast, and treated people in the Coast Episcopal School, which was hastily turned into a hurricane relief center, complete with grocery and clothing store. More than 1,200 people came there each day.

The school gymnasium was missing its roof, one wall and sections of two others. The priests secured a tarpaulin as the top and three sides and invited people in.

The doctors saw between 200 and 400 people a day.

"Depending on the severity of their disease, people with diabetes become foggy, confused. They forget to eat, forget to drink. We had to get their sugar levels back under control."

The general term a lot of people use for their daily medication is "blood pressure pill." They have no idea of the drug's name or dosage. Many had been out of medication for a couple of weeks.

"People said, 'I was supposed to do a follow up with my doctor two weeks ago, but the doctor is gone' or 'the clinic is gone,'" Trobec said of people he saw following knee replacement surgery or other post operative procedures. One person recently had major lung surgery. His chest tubes were still in place. The doctors set many broken bones.

While Gulfport (Miss.) Memorial Hospital was open, the facility was only taking emergency cases and was filled to overcapacity.

Trobec said there were very few children in the area. The people he saw were adults with medical problems. More than 1,200 people came to the Episcopal School each day where a free grocery and clothing store was established.

"Most people just had what they could carry away."

Trobec said the canvas-covered medical clinic was an incredible facility. Volunteers dispensed medication. There was a respiratory therapist, a mental health practitioner and others to treat minor injuries.

A team from Duke University set up a facility in Meridian, Miss., but only two people came for treatment. The university doctors quickly relocated to the coast.

Trobec became acquainted with people from Canada, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and knew of many there from Indiana.

"People just got in their cars and drove down to help.

"One couple from Edenton, N.C., were so touched by the aid they received after Hurricane Isabel (September 2003), they just hopped in their RV and drove to Mississippi. They delivered groceries, they helped in anyway they could."

Trobec said the town of Waveland was completely wiped out. One man was camped out under a huge blue tarp on the beach. A hand-lettered sign said "Town Hall." The unofficial mayor had moved his mother to higher ground before the hurricane and he returned to the coast. His mother died while he rode out the storm.

Trobec heard story after story about the events following the late August catastrophe. "I heard about people who held their babies above water all night.

"I talked to people who've been riding out storms for 80 years. They don't want to ride out another one."

The storm surge left a mud line along I-10, seven to eight miles from the coast. I-90, which runs close to the beach, was completely ruined, buckled in some areas, wiped out in others.

"What I couldn't get over was every person we met was hopeful, ready to move forward. They all said they would rebuild. No one felt sorry for themselves.

"In Waveland (about 18 miles west of Long Beach), I don't know how they'll start again. It's all gone."

Trobec said he heard the casinos would be back, which buoyed people's spirits. But others, with industrial jobs or who worked at small businesses, may be a long time without employment.

Power hasn't been restored in the Long Beach area.

"What I took away, besides the memory of utter devastation, is that one at a time people step up and help people they don't know.

"Everyone there was so thankful for what was provided. But I think we got more out of it. Something like this brings out the best in people.

"Again and again we heard 'Thank y'all so much.'" [[In-content Ad]]