A member of the Salvation Army team which recently spent two weeks in Hurricane-devastated New Orleans, told the experience changed the lives of everyone involved.

Captain Patrick Bulloch said he lived for two weeks in a tent with 280 male volunteers in La Place and spent his days driving a canteen truck to some of the worst-hit areas. ?On my first day there I had to drive around loading up furniture which had been donated and deliver it to people who needed it, but the next day I was assigned to a canteen truck,? he said.

The canteen truck was one of a group of about 13 which delivered hot meals, water and Gatorade to hundreds of people each day. His canteen delivered about 300 meals in a matter of three hours.

The devastation of the people of New Orleans was painful to see, he added.

One day he saw a young woman sitting in her car crying. ?She had just returned to New Orleans and found her house and everything she owned was gone,? he said.

The woman had a 6-month-old baby and did not have anywhere to go because the shelters were full.

Capt. Bulloch said he tried to give her some encouraging words until her husband returned from the canteen with hot food and prayed with them for a while before helping them make some calls to nearby shelters.

?Within minutes they found a shelter that had room for them the next day and I gave them some money for fuel before they left,? he said. ?You never know where these people have gone and what happened to them and you can only encourage them, even though their future seems uncertain.?

On a trip further to the East, he said he met a man who had survived three hurricanes and was living on his boat. Capt. Bulloch said in some of these ?rural? areas residents had already started rebuilding their homes and one day saw people rowing in boats to get to canteen trucks for food.

He said the team from Bermuda was well-received and people were very grateful that they had come all that way to help. ?It was good to see the agencies all working so well together and sharing supplies with each other,? he said.

?On my last day there, we had served about 400 meals in the Garden district and had ten more meals to hand out so we were driving around when a truck came up behind us and honked for us to stop,? he said.

It was the Sheriff of New Orleans knocking. ?He started crying when I asked him how things were going and told me it was he first time in six weeks that he had a chance to get to his own home, only to find it was destroyed,? he said.

Capt. Bulloch said the media were saying that the Sheriff and his officers were thieves, which put even more stress on the Police who were working 16-hour days.

Some had no idea where their families were ? or if they even still had homes.

Another team from the Salvation Army is expected to leave for Louisiana next month.