things you don't think about in a hurricane....

where do the dolphins go?

As Katrina approached, three Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were evacuated from
the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss., to a hotel pool.

as charming as that photograph is...Hurricane Katrina is devastating the Gulf of Mexico...and the already tragically poor areas of coastal Mississippi and Louisiana.

What so many don't know (and are just now hearing) is that the City of New Orleans, more famous for laissezing the bon temps roulet, is actually one of the rare cities in the world that is built below sea level. I heard on NPR this morning that the city has never been hit full on with a Hurricane this strong (the last one they've seen was Hurricane Betsy in 1965). Their luck has run out today...and Katrina has hit ground hard. To quote a friend, "What little nothing they have is being washed away."

New Orleans is one of the country's most impoverished cities...huge numbers of residents in the surrounding area are without running water and electricity on a good day. Today, the 9,000 refugees that had moved to the Superdome had a scare when Katrina tore away part of the roof of the stadium...not nearly the worst of her work--much of the city is already in shambles.

In his AP article, Adam Nossiter offers some tragic accounts of people battling the category 5 (now 4) storm--I would quote, but they make me sad...so you can read for yourself. I will add this, however:

Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Elow of New Orleans pressed her weight against the broken doors of the hotel Le Richelieu as a hotel employee tried to secure them. "It's not life-threatening," Mrs. Elow said as rain water dripped from her face. "God's got our back."

Here's hoping she's right...

Fix your jones for information about the glory of the Big Easy @ madere.com & neworleansonline.com
Fix your jones for info on Katrina @ wikipedia & nola.com & hurricanecity.com

**new orleans sites are getting slammed today...so apologies if any of these are down.

Posted by sarah t. at 3:21 PM