A group of 25 Canadian Red Cross volunteers boarded a Canadian Armed Forces jet Saturday, bound for Houston to help displaced survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

"We've warned them this is going to be a hardship mission," the organization's Suzanne Charest, at CFB Trenton to see off the group, told CTV News. "They have to bring sleeping bags, have to be psychologically prepared to encounter lots of grief and lot of frustrated people."

These volunteers know what to expect: They have been seasoned by work in Afghanistan, Florida in the wake of other hurricanes and New York after 9/11. They know how the survivors will likely be feeling.

"They are angry at life right now, and we are prepared to deal with that and help them as best as we can with whatever it is that they need," said volunteer Bonnie Kearns.

This group will be the first in a series of missions planned for the months ahead. The Red Cross will dispatch another 107 people in the next three weeks.

They will be working with the American Red Cross in whatever capacity that organization wants of them, from helping in shelters to logistics.

In addition, the jet taking them to New Orleans will hopefully bring some stranded Canadians back home.

Meanwhile, in Halifax, Canadian Forces naval personnel were busy loading supplies on ships to depart Tuesday for the U.S. Gulf Coast.

A heavy urban search and rescue crew from Vancouver is already in Louisiana, trying to free any people still trapped in St. Bernard's Parish, located just east of New Orleans, because of Hurricane Katrina and the resultant flooding.

Canadians' stories

Some Canadians are starting to come home from New Orleans after the week's horrific events.

For Angie Wielgosh of Winnipeg, who visited New Orleans with two friends, the hurricane hitting wasn't the worst part of the ordeal.

"It was just the aftermath that was scary," she told CKY News.

Seeing all the debris on the ground afterward was bad enough, but then the floodwater started to rise.

"First everything was dry. Then you see this water, and then the next morning you wake up, and there's a couple feet of water," she said.

"The toilets weren't flushing, and the food was running out and people were looting," added her friend Carly Wokula.

They eventually caught a school bus ride to Dallas on Thursday night, but had to wade through blocks of fetid, waist-deep water to get to them.

CTV News Toronto's Austin Delaney reported there are at least 100 Canadians still trapped in the New Orleans area following the hurricane and flooding.

CTV's Jed Kahane reported from New Orleans that six Canadians who had been stranded managed to finally leave that beleaguered city.

Asked why the U.S. military might have been reluctant to let Canadian officials in to remove this country's citizens, he said: "No official answer, but based on what we saw here today, the last thing they would have wanted would be consular officials from dozens of nations coming into that angry crowd and pulling their own citizens out. Any suggestion of preferential treatment for anyone other than the very sick could have started a very serious riot."

With reports from CTV's Denelle Balfour, CTV News Toronto's Austin Delaney and CKY News' Joe Olafson