Hurricane Redux

I am writing to ask for your prayers, positive thoughts, energies, lit candles, etc. for those in the path of Hurricane Gustav. As one who lived through Katrina, I can tell you the aftermath was overwhelming.

You hear about New Orleans constantly in stories related to Hurricane Katrina. This gets under my skin, as Katrina did not hit New Orleans. New Orleans succumbed to rain-swelled lakes and a poor levy system. Katrina hit Bay St. Louis/Waveland, MS dead on. We were recently in Mississippi and were amazed that the area is still unrecognizable. Funny how we get used to landmarks to find our way around.

But regardless of who got hit with what, the suffering was tremendous. We weren't able to return to our home until almost two weeks after the storm. People were living under tarps in their yards because the homes were either washed away or completely uninhabitable. Thanks to our (p)resident, there was no assembly of the National Guard to help the people. In our area, it was a good week before any help arrived, including the Red Cross. There was no food. There was no water. There was extreme heat and dead bodies, both human and animal. It was horrific.

Three years later, we are still trying to come to terms with Katrina. We have been in a dire financial position having lost everything we owned. We have been unable to replace simple things like cookware. It took Bush's administration over seven months to offer assistance (and five appeals) even though there were pictures and we were in the worst of the storm.

This is what the folks in the path of Gustav are up against. And thanks to global warming, more and more of these super-storms are going to be coming our way. We must do our part, individually, to overcome global warming and be involved politically in solving this crisis.

But even more important, right now, is to pray for those in the way of the storm--and not just in the US. It's about the WORLD, not just US. And be ready to help in any small way you can.