Katrina

I've lived in New Orleans for 2 years between '97-'99. Lived through, what at the time was considered an extremely active hurricane season. Seems like pretty small potatoes compared to the 2004 and 2005 seasons. I'm reading the reports on the devistation that is currently Lake New Orleans. The water is still rising and it's heavily contaminated. Though there hasn't been a preliminary release of the death count, the Mayor sounds grim. At least 300,000 people did not evacuate. Only 25,000 of those took shelter in the Super Dome.

I keep seeing in news article that many people "refused" to evacuate. Some did, sure. But if you understand the extreme poverty of that city, you know that many could not evacuate. It nice that there's a mandate to evacuate the city. It'd be even nicer to supply those without their own vehicles transportation out.

I have a lot of friends in the city. Most of them would have the means to get out. I'm hoping they were smart enough to do so. But then I think of the street buskers and the local color I daily passed by on my way to work or a night out in the French Quater...

Everytime I see the news I just cry.

Got double pay this week for my old job and the new one. I think I'll be heading to the stores to put together care packages for the survivors.