BATON ROUGE, La. — Dina Finta doesn’t know how to describe the extent of chaos and human misery on the streets of Baton Rouge.
The Port Angeles woman, who owns a business based out of the mostly submerged city of New Orleans, flew in Tuesday to Baton Rouge to check on her employees and offer a helping hand.
What she found was like nothing she’d ever seen before.
“It really feels like a Third World country,” said Finta, 40, during a telephone interview Saturday.
“What’s really discouraging, the biggest, is there is no end in sight.
“It’s not like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not there.”
Finta first saw the images of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and a series of levee failures on television, but it didn’t prepare her for the reality on the ground.
“I don’t even know how to describe it,” she said.
“It’s overwhelming and unreal.”
Two offices in Louisiana
Finta is president of Momentum, a firm that provides training for businesses. Her company has offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
She moved to Port Angeles three years ago when her husband, Jim — a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter pilot — was transferred to Air Station Port Angeles.
Momentum’s New Orleans office is in a high-rise building across the street from the Superdome, the scene of a makeshift refugee camp described as a stinking, filthy pit.
Finta and her husband also have a residence in the city, but officials are not letting anyone back into New Orleans.
“There’s no telling” what has become of it, she said.
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If you would like to help Dina Finta assist refugees in Baton Rouge, send donations to the Momentum Donation Account at Chase Bank, 451 Florida St., Suite B100, Baton Rouge, LA, 70801; Account No. 699498150.