International Disaster Emergency Service & DART

International Disaster Emergency Service (IDES) contacted MissionFOTO, having met us at the National Missionary Conference, and asked us to document the IDES effort being waged on the Gulf Coast to rebuild the town of Pearlington, MS, destroyed by Hurricane Katina. The director of Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), Joe Luttrell, met us in Pearlington and gave us a tour of the town as we filmed and interviewed victims of the storm. IDES had dedicated themselves to rebuilding 25 of the homes that had been destroyed. Teams of up to 60 workers arrived every week to volunteer help with the building process. Four of the interviews shot in Pearlington lead to us take some time off in February to compile the collection of interviews that became the film Victims of Katrina.