Having many relatives living in Baton Rouge and two cousins from New Orleans, I found the news of the hurricane’s devastation terrifying, and waiting to hear news painfully nerve-wracking. Especially in the first days, when we could get no news. I had to pray that it was merely the downed phone lines and busy circuits, and that they surely were far enough inland to be safe.

Late Wednesday night, my husband finally heard from his mother, from Baton Rouge. Everyone of our family is safe. Our cousins from New Orleans had evacuated before Katrina hit. They lost everything material, and have no jobs to return to now, as those companies also lost everything. Other friends I know have also finally heard that their relatives are safe, and living in hotels in Texas for the moment.

New Orleans government has now set up operations in Baker, an affluent city that’s little more than an overgrown suburb of Baton Rouge. Traffic in Baton Rouge is insanely congested right now. It can take an hour to go just a few blocks. If you do not need to be there, don’t go there.

For years, everyone in New Orleans KNEW that it would be a major disaster if a hurricane hit the city head on. It was, sadly, not a surprise that the levee broke and the city flooded as badly as it did.

People had been instructed to report to the Superdome for evacuation, and those who had arrived there at the time were taken out. Unfortunately many others reported to the OLD places that you USED to go to for things because they either didn't hear or didn't heed the instructions, and nobody arrived in those places to bus anyone out before Katrina hit.

And those who now go to help are often met with angry accusations, not to mention gunfire. And it is heartbreaking to see a child chanting for help in a refugee crowd. But the "We're going to have a concert to capitalize on what happened to those folks and blame Bush for not doing more" is what really ticks me off right now. That, and the f#@$ing snipers, who I hold personally responsible for anyone that died because they didn't get help in time when the rescuers turned back because they were being fired on.