I was in Tacoma this afternoon, and spoke to Capt. Monaghan, the local
SeaTow franchisee in that area.

He related that he and his son had just returned from assisting in the
recovery and salvage of boats damaged by hurricane Katrina.
They put their tow boat on a trailer and headed south to see how they
could help. They were about a day's drive away from Louisiana when they
got a call from the main SeaTow office asking if they would consider
going to Louisiana to assist in hurricane relief. He said the main
office was surprised to hear they had already been on the road a couple
of days and were headed that direction.

According to the Capt, they just went anywhere they were needed and
did whatever was required. In some cases they were paid for their
services, and in other cases not. A lot of work was done free of charge
at the request of local sherriff's departments, etc.

(He said they pulled two boats out of a guy's backyard, and that even
though he lived quite a ways from the normal coastline the storm surge
was about six-feet higher than his rooftop).