With Katrina more than three weeks behind us, post-traumatic stress disorder is a very real threat. One Valley clinical social worker just returned from helping hurricane survivors in Mississippi cope with their new lives.

She dealt with elderly who had Alzheimer’s, addicts who were going through detox, and even just ordinary people put in extraordinary situations.

"One 85-year-old gentleman holding his wife swam out of a window and lost his teeth, full dentures, his eyeglasses and his wallet," said Susan Frushour, a clinical social worker at Western State Hospital.

They ended up in the Picayune, Mississippi shelter, a place Frushour holds close to her heart.

"I think that everybody was the old term you know before we talked about PTSD was the old WWII adage, shell-shocked," she said.

She spent two weeks there helping.

"We did an awful lot of letting people sob on our shoulders and tell their stories."

Because talking and knowing it’s ok to feel lost is necessary to surviving, even if you've already survived this storm's rage.

"They were so assured that those were normal kinds of things- difficulties sleeping, families that may have good relationships string to bark at each other, lots of crying," she explained.

But just like Katrina's waters, she thinks those tears will recede.

"People have a tremendous capacity to bounce back with some support of course from awful events," Frushour said.

Frushour is optimistic there will be proper mental help down there in the weeks and months ahead.