By Kate Barker

As Hurricane Katrina ripped onto the Gulf Coast in late August, FishHawk Trails resident Luke Diruzza slept in a high school gymnasium in north Florida with 34 others from the Tampa Bay area. Diruzza, a supervisor with Tampa Electric Company, was among the first workers to reach hurricane-devastated Louisiana to help restore power to the area.

In addition to his regular work in investment recovery with Tampa Electric Company, Diruzza also arranges logistics when the company comes to the aid of areas dealing with disasters, so when it became obvious that Hurricane Katrina was going to hit the Gulf Coast, Diruzza started planning how his company could help.

"Tampa Electric is part of the South Eastern Electrical Exchange which provides mutual assistance to other members dealing with impending disasters," says Diruzza. "They knew this storm was going to hit hard and had requested assistance ahead of time so we were pretty much there by the time the storm left."

His group of engineers, linesmen and mechanics traveled through the effects of Hurricane Katrina with its own crew of armed guards, gas supply and a caterer with a 14-day supply of food and drink, and were able to restore power to a hotel in LaPlace, Louisiana, which they made their base.

"We travel with everything we think we are going to need while we are there so as not to be a burden for the area that has more than enough to deal with," says Diruzza, who contracted Lupton's BBQ to cater and adds that the group "ate like kings" on the trip.

As one of the first relief teams to reach the area, the Tampa Electric Company representatives worked hard to restore power to the transmission grid in order to bring electricity to the largest number of people possible.

"Electricity is the first part of rebuilding the infrastructure in a hurricane affected area," says Diruzza. "Once we restore the power, the other teams can get to work on returning the other elements.

Diruzza tells the story of his 14 days in Louisiana through the hundreds of photographs he took of the group’s work and the hurricane's devastation. The pictures show miles of power lines downed by Katrina's winds and homes totally destroyed.

"Many of the areas were literally ghost towns. People are going to be displaced for months and months and it is going to take a lot longer than that for them to rebuild their lives," he says, of the Jefferson Parish area of New Orleans, where the group worked for the second part of its two-week stint. "I have been to a lot of hurricanes with my work and this is the worst devastation I have seen."