The Angel Network Team

Anderson Cooper says that covering the destruction of Hurricane Katrina has been a life-changing experience. "Reporters are supposed to remain distant…observers," he says. "There isn't any distance in Waveland this week."

Forty-eight hours after the storm, he was on the ground with a search and rescue squad. They came across overwhelming suffering, including a family of four that had drowned inside their home.

Another body was spotted nearby, rotting in the street for two days. "The teams really can't take the bodies away at this point because there is no place to store them," Anderson says. "They put a sheet over her [and] they have taken photographs so her next of kin may be able to identify her. But they are going to leave this body here until someone can come."

"It's devastating," Anderson says. "In Waveland, the storm waters have long gone, but the waves of sorrow have just begun."