Watching the coverage of the storm damage from Katrina gives me the same kind of hopeless feeling I had after 9/11, after Oklahoma City, or after the devastating plane crashes of the past 10 years. Yet from what I see, I am having a hard time imagining that life in New Orleans, at least, will ever be the same. How can something that has been so majorly destroyed be rebuilt in any kind of workable timeframe? Perhaps it is possible, and I am just too ignorant to see how. But it really is just horrible to see what these people are going through.

We all probably know someone who has been touched by the storm. My sister is from a Biloxi suburb. She and her family managed to get to Georgia during the evacuation time. I spoke with my mother yesterday, and she said they plan to head back to MS today to see what is left of their house. I am grateful they got out before the storm, and I am praying for her and all the others like her who are facing something that must just be sureal.