CC, thank you for checking in! I've been watching the news and listening out for place-names in Georgia, where the tornadoes struck, hoping to hear something to tell me that your area was okay. I hope you haven't suffered too much damage or loss of property.
I don't know any of the Gulf Coast towns and cities, and my heart has been aching ever since watching the first news broadcast after Katrina made landfall. I can only imagine how much more heartbreaking it is for those who know those places. Who've lived there. Who still live there. It is agonising to watch. Even more so now when we're hearing projected death tolls which put this disaster on a scale approaching 9/11.
Potentially hundreds dead in coastal Mississippi. We don't know how many in Alabama - fewer, far fewer, we hope. But New Orleans and the surrounding region... just an hour or so ago the New Orleans mayor said that the numbers dead could rise to as many as a thousand or more. Other experts - police, medics, the media - seem to expect more.
Words fail me - except to say that I hope more of you FoLCs from that region will be able to report in soon and let us know that you're safe and well. Jen, Forest, Marilyn, if you're out there please let us know.
And if there are
any ways in which we can help any of you who suffered loss or damage, please tell us.
Wendy
