I once knew a girl named Katrina. She wasn't very nice, either.

I generally like to inject my posts with a healthy dose of levity. But it is hard to find humor in all that has happened to our friends along the coast down South. With family down in Florida my first call went to them the day after Katrina blew through as a category one. They were fine, although without power, and for some family, phone service, as they had equipped their home (like many of us) with solely the cordless variety. But they were fine and their houses were still standing. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Even without a television to brandish the images in my mind, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina lingers in my memory. The stories of being trapped in an attic as the flood waters rise, of grandmothers losing everything, of an entire city being demolished, work their way into my mind like little digging fingers. How sad to have lost everything, and then be told that you now have to go away for a few months until there is something for you to come back to. Maybe there won’t be anything to come back to.

Perhaps most infuriating of all to me are the looters, who brazenly storm stores, sometimes in front of helpless law enforcement officials. Taking whatever strikes their fancy, and causing heaps more damage, as small business owners, already struggling to find shelter and food for their family, find their businesses ransacked. I think these individuals are the most worthless of all.

I heard from a colleague today who lives in Mississippi. She and her family are dealing with a fair bit damage, but not as much as their neighbors. They are without power and phone service, and many surrounding areas are reported to have no gas. Generators can’t be found and food supplies are minimal. She wonders why it is taking so long to get assistance. With so many surrounding states that had no damage, why isn’t there more help from the outside? I couldn’t answer her. I think a lot of people want to help, but don’t know what the best course of action is. Donate money? Drive down there and get into the thick of it? Call our Congress people? It feels very similar to 9/11, when there was a great desire to help, but sometimes the way we helped, didn’t really help.

So, I’ll see what I can do from the great frozen North. Maybe I’ll send some cheese.