I was glad to get a report from Dawn in Lafayette:

We are covered here in Lafayette with refugees.
I am so very proud of this community. Lafayette
is just this machine when it comes to helping
people.  In less than 24 hours after the shelter
opened...the news reported they had plenty of
food and to hold off for a couple of days before
bringing more simply for lack of storage space.

We have tons of shelters but the biggest by far
is the Lafayette Cajundome. It seats12-14000
people... but needless to say we can't house that
many in there. As of 10pm last night there were
approx. 6000 in the Cajundome.  I worked as a
Red  Cross volunteer last night assigned to the
special needs area. We have an entire shelter
dedicated to  special needs but there is still
overflow which  had to be accommodated. The
majority of these folks are unable to walk a
buffet line, they require a  littlemore
personalized time and care. One lady thanked me
for simply smiling at her while on my way to
assist a doctor with someone near her.  As I
left last night a 7ish year old child thanked
me for helping her family. I  thought... wow...
this is volunteer work... I'm not supposed to
get paid for this...but that was better than a
million bucks.

In the long arena hallways there are lists of
people who are searching for others. You can
list your name and who you are looking for as
well as a number where you can be reached. I am
told this has been a great help to some families.

It has been a little more than 48 hours now since
the shelters were opened here in Lafayette. I was
told that the volunteer staff was solid for
tonight so a friend and I donated blood instead
for the wounded that have been transferred in
afterKatrina. Guess you can find a way to help
all over the place.

There have been rumors and hearsay flying all
over the place about stores being looted,
carjacking, etc. here in Lafayette since the
refugees arrived. These stories travel like
wildfire. My sister in Dallas, Tx. called me
wanting to know if it was safe for us to be
volunteering. I personally have been unable to
confirm the majority of these tales.  And
believe me I  know plenty of media, and police
officials to check these things out...not  to
mention simply calling the stores that were
supposedly robbed. There hasn't been any unusual
rise in crime all of a sudden. So don't believe
everything you hear. The traffic has gotten
unbearable though.

I am glad to say that conditions in our dome are
being monitored very closely. The janitorial and
maintenance teams are on it constantly. You can
tell that even though these people are sleeping
on cots, mattresses, etc. on the floor...they are
glad to have a clean place to use the bathroom and
at least clean up.

That's all for now...I'll let you know if anything
interesting happens. 

Neighbors helping neighbors. May God bless them all. (Thanks, Dawn!)

Not like a lot of people didn't see it coming. Here's an article from July. Meanwhile, letting natural disaster preparedness slide helped create the Perfect Storm.

For some local tidbits from Baton Rouge, here's a Katrina blog.

Satellite view of Lake Pontchartrain spilling into New Orleans.

If anyone can put humor into this tragedy, it would be the ladies at Snarkywood. In real celebrity news, Morgan Freeman has fund raising efforts going. Also, Fats Domino has been found.

Thought for today: A society will ultimately be judged by how it treats its weakest members.