Later he said, "There's going to be political firefight after this is over. And there should be."

Then, "There it is," Mixon said after about 45 minutes. The Huey dropped onto the abandoned school yard.

Mixon jumped out and sprinted across the dry ground. I ran a different direction. An eerie silence smothered the debris-littered area. Mixon said earlier he could smell the stench of bodies in the air. Nothing alive remained.

"They're gone," said Mixon. "They've packed up and gone."

He was grateful.

We reboarded. I think the crew was covering us with their weapons. The pilot flew his craft to a nearby military post and landed on the levee. Its watchmen pulled their weapons warily and then gestured toward an old sugar factory where refugees had been taken. Katrina had accented the factory's age by blowing out windows and leaving debris.

Curiously, a white goose strutted nearby. Maybe it was mating season and it found the helicopter interesting. It seemed to want attention.

At the factory, police told a badly out-of-breath Mixon that 3,000 refugees from St. Bernard had been gathered and then bused on Sunday to the now-open New Orleans airport and flown away. He had no logs, no records.

"That's St. Bernard for you," said Mixon.

He was angry now. Angry and relieved.

It was now too dark to look for the Chalmette meetinghouse.

On the return trip in darkness, candles of flame could be seen far below: Houses had ignited when waves shifted a structure and tore its gas lines free.

As the Huey passed over the airport, an emergency signal suddenly screamed over the helicopter's radio. Beneath, we learned, an airplane had crashed at the end of the runway. The pilot radioed airport control about the signal and searchers were sent. We were the only ones there to hear it. Perhaps the trip had helped someone.

The Huey droned on. Its fuel gauge dropped lower and lower. It uses 15 pounds of fuel a minute, the pilot said.

"I hope Grandma isn't in jail," said Mixon. "She won't let anyone take those dogs from her."

Mixon learned the following day that Grandma had been taken immediately to a hospital, and the others were in a shelter in Arkansas. Relatives from Texas drove in immediately to collect the family and put them back together.

At this writing, Julie Attaway remains among the missing.

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E-mail: jhart@desnews.com