Millions lost power, and many are still waiting for the lights to come back on more than a week after Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Gulf Coast.
Topeka-based Westar Energy sent crews to join thousands of workers from across North America. They're getting the electricity up and running as soon as possible.
"I've never seen anything like it," says Westar employee Bill Heins, "desperate people with nothing to go back to."
Heins is heading up the group of 34 Westar employees sent to Louisiana to help restore power.
The crew has been working in Labadieville, Louisiana since Thursday, that's about seventy miles southwest of New Orleans.
"We'll start out here on the edges because we can help restore power immediately," Heins says, "and we'll move toward the middle, where it's going to take a lot more material and poles and equipment."
Heins says from the outer areas, the crews will work their way towards New Orleans, now only about fifty percent underwater.
As they work, the crews are helping victims get one step closer to repairing their lost way of life.
"People are appreciative-- they realize we came a long way," Heins says, "I don't think things will ever get back to normal, or what normal was, but at least now they have the convenience of electricity."
10,000 energy workers are on the scene in the storm-ravaged areas along the coast-- that includes crews from twenty states and several Canadian provinces.