Katrina cleanup trip an eye-opener for Iowans

It's called a muck-out.

Seven missionaries from Clive's Faith Lutheran Church drove down to New Orleans on July 29, donned coveralls, boots, gloves, hard hats and respirators, and stripped a Katrina-ravaged house down to the studs before returning home on Aug. 5.

Nobody could believe what they saw.

"I've actually had dreams about it," said Dave Abrams, 71, a retired pastor and Army chaplain who went on the trip. "I didn't think it would affect me that way, but it has. They aren't even close to repairing what happened down there. ...What hit me is the paralyzation of the people."

from the Des Moines Register