Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Heads South

March 27, 2006 — -- Ty Pennington and his home-design crew are on a mission. They are traveling to the South and helping hurricane-ravaged communities reclaim their lives.

It is part of a series of four specials called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -- After the Storm."

On last week's episode, the show built a lasting memorial for those in Biloxi, Miss., who had lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina.

"One morning, we're having breakfast and by noontime all four people are dead and the home is gone," said Doug De Silvey, who lost his entire family.

Pennington said that he wanted to go to the areas devastated by the hurricanes right away, but had to wait until the areas were no longer toxic and were safe to visit. In two weeks, the show will visit New Orleans to rebuild the home of a musician who lost everything.

"This is a great group of guys," Pennington said of the musician and his friends. "They're musicians helping musicians. None of these guys do construction for a living. … They all help one another with each other's homes."

Pennington said that music was the heartbeat of New Orleans and that it was crucial to preserve it. When he stepped off the bus after arriving in the city, Pennington said he was overwhelmed by how quiet it was. He couldn't hear any music, children playing, birds chirping or dogs barking, he said.

"All these people who no longer live in the Ninth Ward teach their children to play instruments," he said. "But if they don't teach their kids, where are they going to learn that? What's scary is that because of this storm, a lot of people have evacuated. It's a real question of whether we've lost a whole way of life and a music genre. If they don't continue teaching this music, it's like losing a language."

When going through the rubble, the design crew came across the things families had left behind after being forced out by the storm. The little signs that life had once existed could be particularly hard to take, Pennington said.

"One of our designers, Tracy, had a baby recently," he said. "When she spotted a teddy bear in a bush, she broke down. You just know some kids used to hold on to that bear."