Dan Sheffer, a well-to-do loan officer, husband, and father from Plantation, Florida and main focus of the documentary. Inspired by a Good Samaritan, who aided hurricane victims in his own state, Dan solicited pledges from friends and colleagues to help cover the cost of flying 10 evacuees from the Houston Astrodome, which he would recruit himself, back to Florida. His goal: to offer these 10 strangers a fresh start by helping them locate both temporary shelter and temporary jobs.
Cynthia Gaunichaux, her son, Robert and her fiancé, Edwin Pierre, an African American couple in their mid thirties, were separated before the hurricane struck when she went to work in her job as a maid at Charity Hospital. Edwin and her son, Robert, escaped the flood only to lose each other during the airlifts. Cynthia remained at Charity hospital, and continued helping patients survive with little food and next to no electricity until she was evacuated.
By week’s end, they were reunited at the Astrodome, in shock and homeless, with only a few meager belongings to their name.
Legaux Wallace, auto mechanic, and his wife and childhood sweetheart, Antoinette Wallace, were stranded for three days after the storm with no power, food or water. Luckily, on safe ground and away from the main flooding, they began to walk to her sister’s house in the next Parish, where they would be safe from looting. They were stopped at gun point by the National Guard and told they could not enter. The options were to go back or remain on a bridge. After attempting to convince others to no avail that this was no place to stay, cold and drenched by the rain after having slept outside, they somehow managed to board a jam-packed bus not knowing where they were headed.
Dionne Caulfield, a New Orleans resident who has worked an assortment of jobs including youth counselor, driver and tutor. She and boyfriend, Nolan Davis, a former Navy man-turned-chef, lived in the Lower Ninth Ward where the rising water not only entered their bedroom, but quickly engulfted everything outside. They ended up being trapped in their attic for three days during the flood until they were finally rescued by guardsmen.
Rex Ditto, a 29 year old grocery store clerk, originally from Mobile, Alabama. He moved to New Orleans not long before the hurricane hit. During Katrina’s onslaught, he found shelter at the Superdome. After the storm passed, Rex and his 14 year old brother left the Superdome to find his car and it was then looters killed his brother, shooting him three times in the head. Rex fled and managed to get a ride from an emergency official to Bay St. Louis, then ended up on a bus to the Astrodome. His mother and grandmother, both of whom had Alzheimer’s were missing and presumed to have been moved to a nursing facility somewhere else in Louisiana. He met Dan Sheffer at the Houston Astrodome and had not only agreed to join his group of evacuees but also eagerly helped in finding others to do the same.
Aaron Rothenberg, construction worker and painter, with his wife, Maria Rothenberg, a secretary, followed the mandatory evacuation and were in Tallahassee when Katrina struck.
From there, they went to Florida in a rented car, where hopes of staying with family members, were short-lived. The Red Cross stepped in with a temporary hotel and connecting them with Dan Sheffer, Heidi Scott and the original group from the Astrodome.
