"There were very few leaks in the roof, which was amazing in itself, but eventually the concrete floor began leeching water and the ventilation system broke down," King recalled.
The next morning, he moved his team to a hotel, which became home base for the rest of their 12-day stay.
After setting up a field hospital, King's unit spent four days helping the small town of Allen Parish move people to and from hospitals and nursing homes and assisting on 911 emergency calls. Members also distributed food, water and ice.
"It's not the nature of a firefighter to sit by and watch when there's work to be done, no matter what it is," the battalion chief said.
Despite making headway, King called the overall effort in Louisiana disorganized.
"The federal and state governments had the same goal, but they were not working together," he said. "Sometimes, we were given an objective, and the details changed midstream." Finding a place to refuel equipment should not have been the hardship that it was, he said. The unit happened upon a service station owner who had closed down her pumps but had secretly reserved 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel for emergency vehicles. That site became "our big secret," he said. Many road signs were down, so GPS navigation became invaluable as well.
There were also numerous palettes of oxygen tanks, medical supplies and bottled water that had been delivered, but no one had been charged with distributing them.
"It was definitely an interesting experience," said King. "But we took things in as to how to better manage the situation - there's definitely a right way and a wrong way."
King said he believes lessons were learned from the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and that the federal government was not totally reactive this time around. Local residents also obeyed evacuation orders in greater numbers than before, he said.
But one sight was alarming to King - seeing residents attempting to purchase generators after Gustav had hit.
"I know that I, like many people in Howard County, store bottled water, canned goods, flashlights and the like in our basements in case of an emergency - so it's difficult to watch people in a hurricane-stricken state learning that lesson the hard way."
Shilling describes the work as being atypical, but rewarding.
"When the bell goes off here at home, it's typically an emergency, and our adrenaline is pumping," she said. "But we were happy to help those people, and we'd all do it again in a heartbeat."
The responders who accompanied King were Capt. Mike Sharpe, Master Firefighter George Krug and heavy-vehicle operator Will Huber. Other members of Petry's unit, in addition to Shilling, were Capt. Thomas Norman, Lt. Kevin Frizzell, and heavy-vehicle operator Andy Hoffman.
