Court Leve/Nevada appeal News Service A young boy waits to be evacuated Tuesday at the New Orleans Convention Center. His mother refused several rides on earlier buses out of the city because she has claustrophobia. As many as 300 hurricane evacuees were expected to start arriving by commercial aircraft at Reno/Tahoe International Airport on Wednesday, but their arrival was postponed.
Last week, Tahoe World photographer Court Leve intended to follow the Nevada Air National Guard for a day-in-the-life feature. Hurricane Katrina changed all that.
Instead, on Tuesday, Leve flew with the Air Guard based in Reno to New Orleans to cover the relief effort. He spent Wednesday flying in a Black Hawk helicopter.
He returns to Tahoe City on Saturday.
Here are some excerpts and a photo from his photographer's journal.
TUESDAY
"We landed and toured the convention center today, and then went onto the international airport.
Most of the trip was about following Adj. Gen. Cynthia Kirkland, meeting and greeting troops.
We saw very little devastation, but everywhere we went the scene was a ghost town due to the evacuation effort."
WEDNESDAY
"Aircraft are coming and going constantly. There are Chinooks, Hueys.
Water is still up to the rooftops; tugboats are on their sides on the river bank. They're still evacuating and looking for bodies.
Yesterday, there were reports of people shooting at the 82nd Airborne. John Travolta is down here."