September 2, 2005 – red paper boat

Hurricane Katrina has destroyed thousands of lives. Together, the liberal blogosphere is raising money for the Red Cross fund for food, water, shelter, and transportation out of the Hurricane Zone.

Please donate now.

If you don’t know how to decide where to donate money for Katrina relief, you can go to Give.org. The obvious option seems to be the American Red Cross (or call 1-800-HELP-NOW). Or, you can donate to the American Red Cross via the Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief drive (click on the ad).

Addendum: Also, Oxfam or Second Harvest. Be patient, as some of the above websites might load slowly due to increased traffic.

Some folks are recommending the donation of a day’s wages as a rule of thumb. If you can’t do that, then anything is better than nothing. If nothing else, dig the change out of your sofa or raid your penny jar (everyone has a penny jar, right?). Most towns have local branches of the American Red Cross that will take such donations in person, so you don’t even need to have a credit card or even a checking account.

I haven’t had a chance to see what’s being shown on network news, but from what I’ve heard on the radio and seen online, it’s bad. BAD. Rescue workers cannot get to the people who need help, because armed looters are shooting at them. People who were lucky enough to get to a relatively safe place to sit out the hurricane are now trapped. They’re without food or water in an area that is oppressively hot and humid. The living are confined with the dead and dying, surrounded by sewage- and chemical-laden water. The risk of disease and infection is huge. According to one report I read, even minor scratches and abrasions are likely to become septic in that environment.

I’m horrified at the physical state of things, but I’m even more disturbed at the lack of help the survivors are receiving. I don’t think people really understand that we live mostly on an honor system. We expect people to behave in a certain way, and generally they do. It doesn’t take much external pressure to upset that balance, though, and when that happens, we do not have (and cannot hope to have) the physical resources to ensure that people are kept safe from each other. So much for Homeland Security, eh?

I did a little storm watching last weekend. Late Saturday afternoon, a small but impressive front moved through, complete with a cloudburst. We got about 4.5 inches of rain within 30 minutes. If you go to the link, the first few images are of the western sky, as the front moved in. Then, there are a couple of photos of water in a tub I’d left on my front porch, followed by some pictures taken toward the east, after the front had past. The last five images are of the fog descending at sunset. The entire western sky was on fire, but it had faded considerably in the time it took me to grab my camera and go outside. It was still lovely, though, and a little creepy to watch the fog devour the electrical pylon across from me.

For comparison, we had nearly 24 hours of solid rain when Katrina passed over us. In that amount of time, my trusty little tub only accumulated 5 inches of rain.