Many of us have wondered, What would it have been like to be stuck in New Orleans in the days after Katrina? How would we have handled ourselves at the Superdome or the Convention Center?

Now imagine those first few days with no electricity, no air conditioning, no running water -- inside the psych ward at the Orleans Parish Prison!

In this brief video, nurse Gavin Johnson talks about getting through Katrina with his elderly father in the psychiatric ward of a prison in downtown New Orleans where they had to shoot the windows out just to get air.

Don't worry -- this video is actually sweet, not graphic; many of the rumors about the prison -- such as a mass escape -- were flat wrong. For the full inside view, get a copy of Gavin Johnson's new book, Prisoners of Katrina.