Karla cooper's home in Slidell, La., was spared the worst of Hurricane Katrina. Her family is safe and accounted for. But in her work life, Cooper, a 19-year veteran of New Orleans-based defense contractor Textron Marine & Land Systems and its human resources manager, is confronted by the vicious physical and emotional toll of the storm every day. About 50 of the 1,150 employees at Textron M&L's two vehicle assembly plants-one in Slidell, and one in New Orleans- are still unaccounted for, two weeks on. More than 500 workers have nowhere to live. Each day, shell-shocked employees make their way to the Slidell plant-where Cooper and other managers work out of a makeshift, generator-powered office—just to make sure it still exists. "At the end of the day, I get home, I'm emotional," she says. Her voice breaks, just slightly. "You want to do something for these people, but there's so many. It gets to you. I get home and I just sit down and I'm exhausted."
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