Though the majority of attention in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been directed to New Orleans, Red Cross fund-raising and public affairs officer Sheri McGraw, who recently returned from two weeks of volunteering on the Gulf Coast, says the Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., areas are “every bit as bad.”

“They suffered 30-foot storm surges, much like the scenes we saw from the tsunami,” McGraw said, comparing the effects of Katrina to those of the tsunami that hit Indonesia last December. “Very well-built houses were reduced to absolute rubble — there was nothing left of them.”

McGraw said she decided she wanted to travel to the Gulf Coast while watching coverage of Katrina the day before the Category 5 storm slammed into the region. On Aug. 31, two days after the hurricane battered the area, McGraw traveled by plane to Montgomery, Ala., and then drove the rest of the way to the coast.

While in Biloxi and Gulfport, McGraw said she worked with media and other relief operations to help dispense information to those affected by the storm. Because a good portion of the area was without power and telephone service, however, McGraw said relief workers relied on “primitive” forms of communication to spread information regarding food, shelter and medical assistance.

“If you had a Sharpie and a piece of paper, you made a sign and hoped the word would get out,” McGraw said of one way they dispersed information. “We pretty much relied on ‘Pony Express’ type of communication — if you were lucky enough to have a tank of gas and a car, that’s how you got the information out.”

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McGraw said she was “amazed” by the spirit of the evacuees she encountered. She said one man in particular was most unforgettable.

“While I was walking down the street to a convenience store in Montgomery, I heard the most beautiful trumpet playing,” she explained. “I saw an African-American man leaning against his car playing New Orleans type jazz. He was one of those famous New Orleans street musicians you hear about.

“He was making good money in New Orleans, but he evacuated with seven of his family members to Montgomery, and they had very little with them. They didn’t know where they were going and he was out of a job. But it was like all of those problems could wait and he was just leaning up against the car playing his trumpet. He brought the spirit of New Orleans with him. It was very touching.

“He had his family and his trumpet.”

McGraw said seeing the jazz musician hit a special chord in her heart — her husband, Kevin, proposed to her in Jackson Square in New Orleans in 1992.

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McGraw said she, along with a couple hundred relief workers, including SWAT teams and state police, stayed in an elementary school, where they ate the same food and slept on the same kind of cots as the evacuees. Although evacuees were not permitted to bring animals into Red Cross shelters, McGraw said the humane society did a “fabulous job” rescuing animals and keeping them safe until their owners had a more permanent place to stay.

“A lot of pets were saved because of it,” she said.

Although McGraw said the outpouring of public help was phenomenal, she said assistance was still needed.

“The Red Cross could not have done this without the help of the American people’s donation of goods, money and the volunteers,” she said. “We just could not have done what we did without the support and gifts of the American people, and we’re just very gracious.

“There is still more that needs to be done. You can get trained to become a volunteer. The volunteers are unpaid, and many will need to come home and get back to their lives soon.”

— E-mail: mjames@register-herald.com