I have a lot of family in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, my closest relatives — my mother, father, step-father, grandmother, plus some aunts, uncles, and first cousins — were not in the most heavily affected areas. Granny was visiting one of my aunts in New York. Her flight home was canceled twice, so she returned on Wednesday instead of Monday, but at least she has a home to return to. My mom rode things out at her house in Fairhope, with not much worse than power outages and downed tree limbs. My father stayed with friends on Sunday night, but stubbornly returned to his home on Dog River in Mobile on Monday morning, despite warnings of a possible 10′ storm surge.
But I also have some second cousins and such who live(d?) in Mississippi, mainly around Biloxi and Gulfport. The last we heard, one of my great aunts was heading up towards Jackson. We haven’t heard from her or any of our other relations in that area since last weekend. We’re hoping that they just don’t have a way to get in touch yet, and that they’re all safe.
A gentleman at our office is collecting supplies for victims of Katrina. He, in turn, will be passing them to another person, who has a box trailer which she is going to fill up with supplies and drive down to the Gulf Coast area. Susan and I packed up two boxes and a baby bag full of baby clothes, diapers, formula, bottled water, bottles, nipples, and other baby necessities. We can only hope that these things can help in some small way. We’re also going to make a cash donation to relief efforts, probably through a local television station that’s doing a joint Red Cross/Salvation Army collection. And as soon as I can, I’m going to donate blood.
Here in Metro Atlanta, the worst we’ve seen are short-term gasoline shortages, skyrocketing gasoline prices, and reports of people trying to steal gasoline from cars in parking lots. My mom says that there’s no gasoline to be found in the Gulf Shores area right now, and that grocery stores are starting to run low on a lot of staple items. In New Orleans, the Mississippi coast, and the surrounding areas, things are much, much, worse.
The last time that this country suffered a major disaster, people pulled together, unified. But in this emergency, we’re horrified to hear reports of looting, car-jackings, shots fired at rescue helicopters (!?!), and worse. How is it that some people in the midst of such a situation become nothing more than animals? No, worse than animals. I don’t know what to say. I try not to think about that aspect of things, and concentrate instead on the efforts of those who are trying to make things better. If you haven’t already done something to help, do so. Even a small donation to relief efforts will do some good.
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