Volunteer looks back at 7 years since Katrina - KXLT - Fox 47 Rochester MN News, Weather and Sports

ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX 47) -- Neighborhoods predicted to be in the path of Hurricane Isaac are some of the same places still bearing the wounds of Hurricane Katrina.

Bill Nicklay of Rochester and his wife went to Biloxi, Miss., two weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit 

"We saw the devastation everywhere; it was indescribable," said Nicklay. "People fighting through the water and parts of houses 15 feet up in the trees."

Nicklay and his wife unloaded and distributed trucks full of food with hundreds of other volunteers.

In 2005, Katrina devastated the greater New Orleans area and parts of southern Mississippi and Alabama.

Since then, New Orleans has made major improvements in preparing for disasters, including a bigger and better levee system. But that doesn't mean people who experienced the damage have forgotten the images.

"Of the memories I have, I hope they're better prepared now than they were then, but when you have a total destruction of what you had -- there was just street after street after street of total destruction completely gone," said Nicklay.

Hurricane Isaac does not have the same predicted strength of Katrina.