Visiting volunteers help restore New Orleans' City Park

NEW ORLEANS -- Michigan State horticulture professor Art Cameron couldn't believe what he saw when he visited New Orleans last summer.

He was shocked to find much of the city still in ruins a year after Hurricane Katrina and he wanted to help.

He and Tom Fernandez, an associate professor of horticulture and faculty adviser for the Michigan State Horticulture Club, organized and raised funds for 46 people from the school to travel to New Orleans during the school's winter break to help clean up City Park.

The hurricane flooded 90 percent of the 150-year-old park, covering it with up to eight feet of water.

Michigan State workers were one of six groups who did volunteer work at the park.