WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Paul Unruh of Newton and Jeff Koller of Moundridge have dedicated a large portion of their lives to volunteering for disaster victims, and both of them say volunteering in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a life-changing experience.
Jeff Koller had been to New Orleans as a tourist before Katrina but when he showed up to help right after the storm, everything had changed.
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“You come in across the causeway, across the bayou and you get to the city. And to have everything dark, we arrived in the evening when street lights should be on and it was black. You knew you were in the heart of the city but it was total darkness,” said Koller.
Jeff was one of many volunteers who brought light to that darkness by saving wind damaged homes by getting new roofs on them as quick as possible. He arrived while bodies were still being recovered and pressed on for those who were suffering.
“We’d be working in a neighborhood and then you’d see them come in with the cadaver dogs sniffing and they would locate someone under a pile of debris,” said Koller…