The worst

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/national-50/1125491642281932.xml&storylist=hurricane

This was the first time mandatory evacuation was ever ordered. This is the first time everyone has had to leave in the aftermath of a hurricane. This *is* the worst in Louisiana history. Everything I've read that compares Katrina to Betsy or Camille says this is worse. Flood waters reaching higher marks, more damage, more, more, more. I can't find the links right now, I've got too much to do at work. But it's worse than it's ever been, that's for sure. I hurt for my home state.

This morning I was on my way to a town hall meeting for work. People who were also going to the meeting but who are from other parts of the company were riding up in the elevator with me - no one I knew. They were talking about the situation in New Orleans, and one man made the comment, "Well, now the Saints have the stadium they deserve." (For anyone not a follower of football, the New Orleans Saints have historically sucked rocks - it's only in the last four or five years, I think, that they've even made the playoffs, and hell will freeze before they go to the Super Bowl.) What a horrible thing to say about a situation where so many people literally have nothing left and no place to go. And maybe I'm just sensitive because I am from Louisiana - if I were from somewhere else, maybe I'd have chuckled at the black humor. I'd hope I wouldn't, though, because this is nothing to laugh about.