It's Tuesday 08/30/05, 2 PM. I've been glued to CNN ever since Hurricane Katrina started heading for New Orleans. Like many of people with friends or family in the southern states, when cellphone communications started to deteriorate it brought back feelings of helplessness, worry, panic and frustration as that dreadful 9/11 day.
Members of my family are very lucky as they were able to evacuate Mandeville, LA and settle in a shelter before Katrina touched down on early Monday morning.
Due to the immense devastation caused by the hurricane, news sources are hard to come by regarding situations of smaller surrounding towns. Sitting in NJ, thousands of miles away from my family I can only wait by my phone to receive the next call from my brother as he slowly makes his way to some of the bigger cities where hopefully there is power and gasoline.
When he asked if I was able to reach our friends who left for Texas before Katrina hit, I answer with the same resignation, "no, lines were busy". When he asked about road and power conditions up ahead I can only give him the very limited information that I can find online or the rare conversations exchanges I have with shelter sponsors.
As he makes his way towards Atlanta, Georgia, I'll post as much info as I can.
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