When ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger agreed to spend two weeks assisting in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, he didn’t bet on a second hurricane bisecting his stay near the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.

He plans to ride out the onslaught of Hurricane Rita at his current location this weekend.

“Down here, we’re under tropical storm warning,” Deisinger said in a telephone interview Thursday. “People are primarily – except in low-lying areas near the coast – are sheltering in place.”

He is currently in LaRose, La., about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. At the request of the Red Cross, Deisinger, a psychologist, traveled to Louisiana last Friday to assist in coordinating mental health services for evacuees and Red Cross staff. He plans to return to Ames next Friday as originally planned.

Deisinger said heavy rain was expected Friday night as the brunt of the storm will come ashore to the west of his location.

He said nothing he heard or saw beforehand on television could have prepared him for the situation he has seen during the past week.

“There are communities that simply no longer exist,” he said, adding many people escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Deisinger added that, based on his observations, there would continue to be a major ongoing need to help people who lost everything, beyond the immediate aid provided by relief groups.

Deisinger’s wife Maureen, academic adviser for the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said she has been in regular contact with him during the past week. She said he tries to call daily, often at night just after she puts their children, Jason, 6, and Ryan, 3, to bed.

“When they heard about Hurricane Rita, they asked if Daddy would be in that storm,” Maureen said.

Although the answer was yes, she told them he would be OK.

She said Gene told her many of the volunteers were more nervous about Rita than the evacuees, who already knew what to expect.

Bill Gutowski, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, said the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased significantly during the past 10 years, but two major storms hitting the same area within weeks is rare.

According to a National Center for Atmospheric Research news release, a study published last week by researchers there and at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the number of severe hurricanes has doubled since 1990, with an average of 18 a year globally.

“Our work is consistent with the concept that there is a relationship between increasing sea surface temperature and hurricane intensity,” said Peter Webster, professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, in the release.