Thoughts for New Orleans

Here in the heartland, we don't deal with hurricanes but it's impossible not to watch and pray for those who do. A couple of weeks back, Doug in Ft. Myers was preparing for Fay, a hurricane that lost strength and didn't cause as much damage as feared. Now, the people of Louisiana, New Orleans, and Mississippi are in the eye of the storm, almost literally, at this moment. Yesterday some advisers of college papers in the region posted on our professional list serv the information that their schools were evacuating, but that their student staffs were continuing to publish online, in true journalistic tradition. My heart goes out to these people, whom I know through national meetings and reading their thoughts online for sometimes up to 15 years.

Through the amazing connections of the blogosphere, I also found some first-person accounts of what it's like to deal with the stress of waiting for Gustav so soon after trying to rebuild from Katrina. One compelling account from New Orleans is LettyNOLA, whose blog can be found by clicking on her name. And over in Mississippi, a Presbyterian pastor who writes under the handle of St. Casserole talks about the process of rebuilding her small damaged church and what it's like to be waiting, once again, with dread for damage to strike. Finally, I commend the coverage of the New Orleans Times-Picayune at its site. They did a heroic effort after Katrina and they are now prepared to do the same to cover the anticipation, arrival and aftermath of Gustav. As I watch and visit these sites I am amazed by the tenacity of all these folks in telling the story, so that the rest of us can know what their experience is like. God bless all of them.