NATCHEZ &8212; During the worst disaster his company and, for all he knew, his family ever had endured, Entergy lineman Flozell Grady was in Iraq.

&8220;Flozell was off fighting a war, and his family was back here. I know what he must have been thinking,&8221; said Travis Leggett, supervisor of Entergy&8217;s Natchez Network. &8220;He knew what was happening. He knew it was a big storm, but he was thousands of miles away.&8221;

Grady, a section leader in the 155th Infantry of the Mississippi Army National Guard, left Natchez in August 2004. He returned only seven weeks ago.

&8220;We listened to the news as we could. We knew it was bad, but the news never told us about the small towns,&8221; Grady said about Hurricane Katrina. &8220;But a lineman knows.&8221;

He could imagine what his co-workers were facing, but he was out of touch for the first four or five days after the storm. &8220;I knew the guys were having long hours.&8221;

Caught between two jobs, he wanted to be home helping with lineman work. &8220;But over there, we were trying to help people, too,&8221; he said of his work in Iraq.

The dangers were different. In Iraq, every day the infantrymen faced threats of roadside bombers and suicide bombers. &8220;Where we were was a hot spot,&8221; he said.

Back on the job with Entergy, he slowly is getting back on his feet, receiving training to bring him up to company standards.

Leggett said Grady &8220;is anxious to be out there again, but we&8217;re easing him into it, letting him spend more time with his family.&8221;

Grady followed in his father&8217;s footsteps working for the electric company. &8220;My father was with Mississippi Power & Light,&8221; he said. &8220;I started helping him around the office where he worked and eventually went to work full time.&8221;

By 1996, he had trained to be a lineman. &8220;I can&8217;t brag enough on Flo for going to Iraq and for doing what he is doing now to get back to work,&8221; Leggett said. &8220;We had a difficult time the whole time he was gone.&8221;

Sometimes information about the troops was difficult to get, Leggett said. &8220;I missed Flozell terribly while he was gone, and so did everybody else.&8221;