SLIDELL, La. —

Hurricane Katrina's unexpected devastation in Slidell left officers grappling with the storm's severity as they witnessed the wind peel back the sky and the lake swallow the interstate.

Officer Rodney West, stationed at Slidell Memorial Hospital, described the storm's eerie silence, saying, "This is going to be worse than what we'd expected. We were prepared to a certain point, however, with a storm as big and powerful as Katrina was. It exceeded our expectations." Advertisement

Without formal rescue boats or a plan B, officers improvised with whatever floated.

"We drove a boat right up to this back. A lot of the police department further down. Sergeant Alfred went into the Lincoln Park and Washington Heights neighborhoods, not too far away from here, and started pullin

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