AMAZON

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Katrina

I awoke this morning to my radio, which was set to NPR, reporting on the impending second landfall on Hurricane Katrina.

Ellen, who writes the bog “El,” was in Florida when Katrina, then a Category 1 Hurricane, hit there. Ellen has posted in her blog some photos that she took of the aftermath; you may wish to view them. She writes:


“It wasn't too bad… The worst part of the hurricane to me was the headache from pressure change, the loss of electricity (two nights with no airconditioning), and having to deal with the airport in Miami afterwards.”

From the news reports I’m now hearing, Katrina will come ashore sometime between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Monday. Already New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has declared a state of emergency and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city.

I have friends who are from New Orleans, although they now live in the Midwest, and one friend who now lives near New Orleans. I have been unable to contact him and I pray he has left the area in accord with the evacuation order.

I remember listening to “The Radio Reader” read the book Isaac’s Storm, which is about the 1900 hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas. Katrina sounds as terrible as that one, where more than 6,000 men, women and children lost their lives. Of course, as I remember the book and the story, those folks really didn’t know what was coming and there was no evacuation.

I pray people today take seriously this potential destructiveness of Katrina and do evacuate.

2 comments:

  1. Hope your friend made it through okay. It's horrible what happened to the Gulf Coast.

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  2. Yes, El, it is a terrible situation along the Gulf Coast.

    I received an email from my friend who lives in New Orleans this afternoon. He said that he left Louisiana shortly before Katrina hit and is now with his parents in Texas.

    However, he tells me that friends who stayed in New Orleans have contacted him and informed him of major damage to the apartment complex where he lives.

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