This is hard. I want to get this done before I can really start to do other things like work on the magazine.

First off I want to thank the many people who have offered to help and house me while I am out of a home. As you can see from the image above (a satellite photo taken after the hurricane hit) my home is standing. The rest of the base is has been hit with some roofs removed. This photo, I fear, gives me a false sense of hope. There was 8 feet of water during and after the hurricane reported in my area. I can not see if there was any flood damage from these photos. At least I know I have a roof.

I left my house, after being told to mandatory evacuate, with only 3 pairs of clothes. I also only moved a small amount of items off of the first floor and up to the second. All of my DVDs and most of my games are on the first floor. I feel stupid complaining about these things, I mean, I have a house and my dogs, turtles, and the life of myself and my wife.

I have heard from a few friends, some of which are moving never to return to New Orleans, most are ok. I have a few I can’t seem to hear from. Only text messages are reliable as far as my cell phone goes so I can’t call them. I am going a little crazy not knowing certain things. I try to distract myself with things and not watch the news. I keep feeling that if I miss any little bit of the news that they will at that point in time say the information that I am looking for. It is like a drug.

Thanks to the help and contributions of many friends and family I now have a decent amount of clothes and have a place to stay for the next 4 to 12 weeks. My wife is still unsure of what is going on with her school and many of out long term goals have been ruined by this storm.

I try to stay strong, but as I was saying to Toups recently, my “faith” wanes in times like this.