Storming

I haven't been able to wrap my head around the horror Katrina left in her wake, particularly in New Orleans. The destruction of a grande dame of a city, the sea of desperate, suffering faces beamed into my living room by BBC - the realization that - at least in the footage I've seen - most of the faces are black. The poorest of America's poor, people without the means to obey an evacuation order - and the rest of us forced to see how the line between those who got out and those who didn't splits down all too familiar racial lines. In 2005.

I haven't been able to wrap my head around the quiet way panic built in a series of emotional group emails from friends in Shreveport, a few hours from New Orleans - first the calm, the "all's clear, we're OK everybody"..a full day later the horrified "Do you all know how bad it is? Friends have lost everything", and finally the frantic plea for ANY help ANYone could send - with a promise to deliver it all by hand to the already overflowing shelters up in Shreveport - almost 3 hours from New Orleans.

I stared at the screen for hours, unable to post about what was happening at "home" and unable to post about anything else.

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Melusina at Mel's Diner, an American living in Greece, found the words I couldn't in a beautifully written (and aptly titled) post today: As I Lay Dying.

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And this on Be Here Now, which I really do need to blogroll...

The Red Cross is taking donations online, and a long list of artists at CD Baby are donating all CD sales proceeds to the disaster relief.