The damage assessments are starting to come in. There is major devastation across the coastal communities of the northern Gulf of Mexico, among them New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and Gulfport. Access is restricted and it will likely be some time before evacuees can return. FEMA, Homeland Security and local authorities are conducting search, rescue, and recovery operations. If you want to help, the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund is an excellent option.
Despite the devastation and significant loss of life, I am deeply uncomfortable with characterizing Hurricane Katrina as "our tsunami" as some media establishments have picked up as their headline. I understand - no I don't understand, but I can empathize with - the people in the zone of destruction seeing their livelihoods and homes washed away, and for some of them, losing family and friends to the flooding, and thus experiencing and expressing those emotions. No matter where you are, Indonesia or Mississippi, losing part of your family is a horror beyond imagining. The 2004 tsunami, however, took over 150,000 lives. Thank whatever you hold holy that this was not "our tsunami."
Posted by binky at August 30, 2005 10:33 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Natural Disasters