Stir Crazy

So it is obvious by now that Rita chose to keep her appointment with us and unfortunately hit our hometowns head on. Despite the fact that it was only a category three when it actually hit us it still managed to do quite a bit of damage. It is hard to decide right now which was worse, waiting for the storm to hit or waiting to go home to see the damage for ourselves. Yesterday was filled with a constant networking of phone calls, everybody trying to find out what state Vidor and Bridge City/Orange are in. Most of our information is hearsay, from a friend of a friend who stayed or who works for the energy company. We are desperate for information. One of Dianne's cousins returned home yesterday because they were staying in Louisiana, where it is no safer than our own homes, and her assessment was that for the most part things looked mostly unscathed, though today we found out that Chris' cousin Derrick's house was hit by two falling trees. Derrick lives five houses down from Chris and me. We understand that flooding was not a factor, something that I am extremely thankful for because I know that our street is not that well equipped for flooding, a reality we faced the day of my rehearsal dinner when we had a flash flood that caused water to come up half way up my drive way at at least six or seven inches at the lowest point. My biggest fear is the trees. We have three huge pine trees in the backyard and one in the front yard. The last that we had heard our house was not damaged, but then that was also when Derricks house was in good shape too, so now we hardly know what to think. Dianne is still in the dark about her house in Bridge City, which is extremely close to Port Arthur.

Rumors have been swirling about the state of Vidor itself. The roof of Woods supermarkets is apparently gone, the Exxon station has been terribly battered, trees are scattered everywhere and of course, power lines are down all over. Chris' cousin Carrie only evacuated about 25-30 miles north of where we all live and she has come back to assess some of the damage. Her report includes the fact that Parkdale Mall in Beaumont has a very destroyed roof and many other buildings have been severely damaged. What is frustrating is the fact that these are all just rumors to us now. The news is hardly showing footage from our areas, all we have to go by are these rumors. Dianne just got off the phone with her cousin Debbie who told her that the new house Glenn and Dianne have been building has had two trees come through their front bay windows. They are extremely worried about the health care business that they run as well. Dianne said that she can't wait any longer and wants to go home and at least see what has to be dealt with. According to the state government we are not supposed to be attempting to go back home until at least Wednesday or Thursday, but then you try telling people that who have already been away from their homes for four or five days and want nothing more than to piece their lives back together.

We are very quickly going stir crazy here. It is very hard to concentrate on anything when you don't know where your home stands or your everyday life. Business are closed, school is cancelled and there is no power. The scariest part of the power situation is that they have been reporting that we may not have full power restored until November! It is crazy thinking that our lives might be suspended for so long. I suppose having this house in Austin to stay in has been a major blessing though it is not home and right now home is what we are all pining for.

Dianne has just told Glenn that she is going back to check on the house no matter what and they will probably be leaving in a few hours to check everything out and come back. Chris and I have to say because we can't all go since we took two cars to get here in the first place, and the uncertainty of regular gas supplies is a big issue here. Their plan is to go and then come back. I hope that what they find is not too devastating.

Of course, I hate the thought of sitting here while they go back. We have all been trying all forms of distraction. Last night Chris' cousins went out and bought Family Feud on DVD and we spent a few hours playing that game. We had a good time and we all needed the laughs. I think that I am going to drag Chris out into town today to get out of the house and away from CNN. It has become overwhelming. We all have head-aches and upset stomachs. It has been a depressing few days and we are just sick of waiting.

The news has been equally annoying at times, with footage of only large centers and rarely a shot or two of our towns. And with comments like, "those visiting in other parts of Texas are asked to wait before returning home" or "some say this area, which hasn't been hit with a strong hurricane since the 1950s, is due," it is just about enough to drive a person mad. Ya sure, I am here on a nice friendly visit to Austin having a grand ole' time! How ignorant! Or better yet, the "they're due" comment is just disgusting. That is like saying because New York hadn't had a terrorist attack in a while they were due! It is just disgusting, no one deserves to have their homes and their lives destroyed.

So, I don't want to wait anymore. I may even try to talk Dianne into letting me and Chris come with her to go back on this trip because I think that I will go crazy sitting here wondering and waiting. I have always been a doer and I don't think that I can just sit back and give in now. We will see what happens, but whatever happens I cannot be on the sidelines and helpless.

Lady-In-Waiting

Alas, I must apologize to my parents and to Francesca both of whom I assured that hurricanes do not affect us here in our part of Texas. I feel that for us this situation has actually gone from bad to worse. It looks like Rita has shifted and will likely make landfall right through Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange. This is of course, exactly where we live. Dianne, my mother-in-law lives right on the bordering town lines between Bridge City and Orange, and the rest of us live in Vidor which is right in between Beaumont and Orange.

We evacuted on Wednesday night, leaving at about 11pm and it was a long long night. Driving to Austin usually means that we drive through Houston and the trip usually takes about four and a half hours. On this trip we took some alternate highways, which didn't at all make for a faster trip because all the highways were packed. We finally made it to Dianne's house at 9am. I don't think that any of us have ever seen anything quite like what we experienced, in our lives. We stopped for gas twice and each time the gas-stations were packed with hundreds of cars, people getting gas, stopping for breaks and naturally, using the bathroom. And these were just the gas stations that we stopped at, the many others that we just passed along the way were just as full. Before we left Vidor we had to top us Chris' tank and that was a challenge as one station was completely out of gas and most others were out of everything except for Super. Perhaps what is a little unnerving is that even up here in Lago Vista (where we are, just north of Austin) there are stations that at times are running out of certain types of gas. Desipte our long and tiring trip I must say that we actually had it good. Our ten hours has nothing on those people, like Chris' cousins from the suburbs of Houston, who travelled for over fifteen hours, or worse those people who were there for twenty four hours or more.

The last two days have been extremely draining. Even though I managed to bring some books, some art supplies, my photography equipment and my writing I have not been able to bring myself to work on anything. I went to sleep yesterday morning at about 9:30am, shortly after we arrived, but I only managed to sleep until noon. We are all so nervous right now and all that we can seem to do is watch the news. Until today our region wasn't even being mentioned which made it very difficult for us because we have had little idea of what state our towns were in. Last night at about 3am I finally got some sleep and miraculously managed to sleep for a full seven hours. Today has been a sleepy day actually. I think that I have reached a point where emotionally and physically I am exhausted. We have all been trying very hard to be optimistic about how this will turn out but deep inside I just want to break down and have a good cry. Part of me just wants to this hurricane to finally hit so that we can stop waiting and the other part of me wants to wake up from a horrible dream about a massive hurricane that is about the hit my home.

In an attempt to lighten our mood, Jason, Chris' cousin, has started a $5 pool for "Where will the eye of Rita Hit". I have placed my bet on Cameron, Louisiana, Dianne had picked Lake Charles and Chris is sticking with Port Arthur. In the end it won't really matter who wins, because even if you win you lose since all these areas are so close to each other. But for the moment it has helped us to laugh a little. I am glad that Jason has managed to keep his humour because I don't know that I have it in me at this point to be witty and clever, even though I am sure that I would like to be. It might somehow make me seem like a better writer to be able to be clever at a time like this, instead of writing exactly what I feel, which at this point is just very scared.

Tomorrow we will have a better idea where we stand. Though who knows when we will actually be able to get home after this storm is finished with us. And after seeing the traffic leaving the Gulf Coast I am sure that we can all imagine what it will be like coming back. I guess we have nothing left to do but sit and wait, which has already been the hardest part of this whole ordeal. But when you think about it who in their right mind wants to be told to sit patiently and wait while a horrible hurrican ravages their home. Of course I realize that I can't do anything about it but that's just what makes it harder to bear that you are helpless to do much except leave and hope for the best.

The only thing that makes all this bearable is knowing that our families are safe and that Chris is with me. I am sure that it sounds very cliche but it makes us realize how what really matters are the people in your life not the things. And I know that with Chris, even if the things are gone, what we have with each other will be strong enough to get us through the worst without taking it out on each other. But I won't lie, I really hope that we don't have to face that grim reality of coming back to a destroyed home.

So it is back to waiting, which is not easy, but it is all we have left to do.

A Healthy & Organized Storm

So we are actually in the middle of packing up certain precious belongings and securing other areas of our home right now as we prepare to evacuate for fear of the ever-growing Rita. And right now I am sure that I should be all business but I think that part of me is in a bit of shock because let's face it I have never in my life had to evacuate my own home. I mean up in Canada you get a snowstorm and it is kind of fun, you get to stay in your house, all cozy and cuddled up with a good book and hot chocolate, everyone gleefully getting chubby and warming themselves by the fireplace and finally catching up on that novel has been sitting on the night stand for months. Snow is snow, it might pile up, you can't leave the house, it is cold and bitter outside but there you are with all of your things feeling safe in your home. So right now I am sitting here with the knowledge that actually my house will probably not be safe in a couple of days. They have told people all along the coastal areas to evacuate and get to higher ground, everywhere from Port Arthur to Corpus Christi. Well that's us too, we are right next to Port Arthur. Of course we can hope for the best, leave thinking that it won't hit us that hard but I guess I don't know what to think. I am packing up documents, computers (this one that I am one right now will be dismantled shortly), china that I just received for my wedding from my parents, books, photography equipment and all the while not knowing what to feel. We have just gotten our house to to exact level of cozy that I love. People come in and that is the first thing they usually say, "oh how cozy" and now the thought of leaving it all behind with the possibility that it might be ruined when we come back is very hard for me.

Of course, what is slightly humorous about good ole' Rita is how the weather channel people talk about her. In case any of you did know, Rita is a very healthy storm, with a well-developed eye and is extremely organized. I would like to have a word or two with the overly enthusiastic meteoroligists who are reporting this with such awe and even a twinge of excitement in their voices. I must say that I would be more than content with a sick and disorganized hurricane at this point. I am having visions of the storm doing crunches and push-up and pulling out her BlackBerry to schedule her next appointment. Of course, it is all funny, until you realize that her next appointment is with us!

So anyways, I am nervous and trying to keep my mother calm, who has called me at least five times today and in tears at least once. Luckily for us we have a place to go when we leave, we are headed to Austin where Chris' parents have a vacation house. But still nobody wants to leave behind their home like this, wondering what will happen. The truth is if nothing happens but some strong wind and rain, it is really the whole experience of feeling that you have to leave your home that is hard. I hope with all my might that we are not devastated in the same way as Katrina victims were. I know our flooding will not be of New Orleans proportions but even still living a displaced life would be a lot for me to handle now, especially since in some way I already feel displaced having only just started my life here in Texas with Chris. I hope that after this weekend we will be able to go back to living and creating our life together with only minimal losses, if any. And I hope that Rita drops her BlackBerry between now and Saturday and that she takes up smoking or some very unhealthy habit immediately.

Christopher's Imaginations

I have managed to inspire Chris to start his own blog too and he has very enthusiastically posted several pieces of his own writing there. It is appropriately entitled Christopher's Imagination because Chris is probably one of the most imaginative people that I have ever met (and I'm not just saying that because he is my husband).

At a young age he discovered Dungeons & Dragons and for Chris this proved to be a breeding ground for creative imagination. And in the twenty-plus years that he has been playing D&D he has managed to get all of his friends hooked on it too, to the point that even now they all still ask him when he is going to run a game. Now you see I am a newcomer to the whole world of role-playing games so for a while there I just wasn't getting it. Chris would tell me with great enthusiasm what had happened in a battle (that took four hours to play out!) and how they were surprised by some monsters but how quick thinking and a vast knowledge of spells and smart moves had gotten them through it. He would go into great detail about all the action, who said what and how they returned back to some pirate ships which belonged to them but that had been left for years only to find that a houseboat had been established in place of a serious pirate crew. And all this time I was wondering where these stories were coming from, how did they know what had happened to pirate ships that had been abandoned years before? How do you know what the bad guys are going to say? How do you even know what they are going to do? I mean as far as I knew this was a role-playing game where they made up the stories, so how is it any surprise when something happens? So finally I decided that I would have to admit my confusion and just ask. And in asking I discovered that Chris' imagination is so vivid that he comes up with these elaborate adventures that exceed any game I have ever seen played. He gets so into the game that the story just seems to build on itself.

Last Thanksgiving (American) I played my first ever D&D game with Chris and a few of his friends. And I think that for the first time I really understood exactly why everyone played with Chris and why after all these years they still wanted him to run these games. While the rest of us were sheepishly acting out what our characters might say or do, Chris was in full character, giving detailed descriptions of exactly what he was doing and how it be. "I am teaching a class when you come in to tell me the news of the brewing war in the land of 'blahblahblah' and I step away from the board but the chalk keeps writing furiously." Right, well that made my character's answer of, "uh, okay I will come to fight with you" look pretty lame and unimaginative. But it is because Chris is so enthusiastic about the story that makes it fun, even if at the beginning it is hard to let yourself get into character.

Chris, like so many of us, is an aspiring writer. For a few years now he has been working on a novel called Glevendreal: Saga of the Third Son, the first chapter of which won first place in the "Unpublished Writer Award" in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category of the Golden Triangle Writers Guild 1998 Conference. I have taken on the role of informal editor for his book and have been ruthlessly picking apart each chapter, not because I don't love it, but rather because I love the novel so much that I want him to produce the best manuscript possible. I am so sucked into the story that I am currently upset with him for not writing more! I love the world that he has created and the detail that he has put into it and I am growing with impatience for him to just finish it!

So, you are wondering, why is she writing this entry? You mean other than shamelessly promoting my husband and trying to encourage you all to check out his blog?

I am writing this because Chris' imagination and how he expresses it in the D&D adventures that he writes and the work that he puts into his novel sometimes make me jealous. But the good kind of jealous. The kind that encourages you to work on your own writing. I get so inspired to work on my own writing because I see him get so into his.

A few days ago, I was browsing through the Bas Bleu website again and came across a book called "Living With A Writer" edited by Dale Salwak and the excerpt passage really caught my attention and made me laugh.

How can two writers live under the same roof?...The one-writer-per-household myth seems so ingrained that I have come to imagine that one day, inevitably, our house will play host to a High Noon showdown: Anne and I will appear from offices at either end of the hallway, silhouetted in the glow of 200-watt halogen reading lamps. Manuscript pages will swirl around us in the coffee-scented air, the silence broken only by the hum of a distant fax machine. 'This house ain't big enough for the two of us,' one of us growls. 'Isn't', says the other. We reach for our pens. A moment later, when the ink has cleared, one of us is condemned to become a dentist.--George Howe Colt, husband of Anne Fadiman.

I love that passage. And now I must buy yet another book because what writer can resist a book about the writing experiences of other writers! Oh, that and the fact and I am bibliophile!

The other thing that I loved about the passage is that I slyly looked over at Chris and thought, which one of us will be 'condemned to become a dentist'? Naturally, it will be him ... though perhaps not a dentist ... teacher? computer guy? we'll think of something! No I am just kidding, who knows how this will all end. Perhaps we will in fact be fortunate enough to be that unfathomable entity of the two writer household! And then again, perhaps we will do exactly what we have been doing all along, write while also pursing our other passions. Anything is possible. But what I love about sharing my house with another writer is the fact that I live with someone who understands my quirks as a writer, and my aspirations and someone who will also ruthlessly edit my work, not to put me down, but to help me perfect my craft and become a better writer. And anyone with Chris' level of imagination is a good person to take advice from, not to mention inspiration.

Chris Floyd

Last week Dianne and I discovered Chris Floyd. In my Katrina entry his is the article that I recommeneded most highly, alongside the Anne Rice article. Now I have been reading the entries on his website daily because I love his writing style and what he says is dead on. Yesterday I found the following entry and I would highly encourage everyone to read it! If we had doubts and questions about what the role of the government was, should be or could be in a national disaster like the one we are facing in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama then this article will certainly open your eyes. Or merely confirm what you already knew, that the leader of this country, the President himself, did not step up to the plate and act as he should have or could have.

A Curious Lacuna -- Chris Floyd -- 7 Sept. 05

For more information about Chris Floyd follow this link: Welcome to Empire Burlesque or check out his blog on Blogspot.com : Empire Burlesque .

(Anyone who has spent time in Russia is a person after my own heart! So obviously he has smart things to say!)

The Bluestocking

When I started out with this blog I gave it the title Romancing the Ordinary, which has been my motto for some time now when approaching so many things in life. Be grateful for the little things, find beauty in what you already have and all that surrounds you, find the good in people and, to borrow a favorite phrase of mine from the movie Unfaithful: enjoy this moment, this moment is your life. This philosophy is still very dear to me. But yesterday as I was writing my entry on the Katrina disaster I realized that I wanted this blog to be more encompassing. I wanted the opportunity to write about any topic and not limit myself to expressing just one side of myself. Yes, I am a romantic and my life philosophy or outlooks have not changed, but I wanted to open the door for myself to anywhere that such an open door might lead.

I am in the process of starting up a women's book club for the women in Chris' family, now also my family. There are a lot them! Dianne, my mother-in-law, has three sisters and there are enough female cousins and cousins-in-law to start a good sized book club with. Having just recently left behind all of my own close friends and my family back in Canada, I have been looking for ways to make friends here and to somehow get out and do something with other people. Naturally being the nutty bibliophile that I am I could think of no better way of getting out there than by starting a book club. In the last few days I have been working on a nice invitation for the book club and have been struggling with a name. I guess I just like names. I wish people still named things like they used too, like houses! Finally yesterday I realized that it was staring me in the face. Dianne had given me a book catalogue from a bookseller called Bas Bleu. Bas Bleu translating to none other than bluestocking. So there is was, Bluestockings! How perfect ! Literary women! Women having intellectual or literary interests.

And the more I thought about it and the more I mulled over in my head all the things that I had written about Katrina and about all of the things that interest and intrigue me, about all the research I do on a daily basis about this and that, the more I realized that I am in fact a bluestocking. I love learning, I love discussing literature and I thrive on intellectual conversation. And so I realized that this blog needed a make-over, not that it didn't look great before, but I suddenly felt that I wanted it to represent my many sides, my many ideas and aspirations.

I hope that the book club will turn out to be a success. I have already managed to sell a few girls on the idea. And now the challenge will be to find some books that we can all enjoy and get a good discussion out of. But I have high hopes.

In the meantime, I look forward to all the other new endeavours that I am embarking on. Currently I am taking an online course with Barnes & Noble called "How to think like an editor" which is aimed at people trying to write non-fiction, a genre that I hadn't actually thought of myself writing in but which has been appealing to me very much in recent months. I am also doing an online book club with Barnes & Noble on The Jane Austen Club, a book that I am really enjoying and the discussions so far have been great! I have also been very fortunate in that I am sitting in on one of Chris' graduate classes. Victorian Literature, something that I never really studied while at university since most of my comparative literature classes were primarly Russian or European literature but rarely any British. So far there has only been one class but I am already very intrigued and have a suddenly newfound attraction to critical theory, and anyone who knows how I felt about critical theory after my own experiences with it in university will see this as being a very big transition for me.

I think that I am just hungry for learning, as I have always been, but having left university where I was constantly feeding that hunger with more courses and great discussion has left me yearning for more. I won't start here on my whole philosophy about whether or not university is the only place that can fill that void because otherwise we would be here for a long time, I will save that for a later blog, no doubt. But for now I guess it is enough to say that I am looking forward to taking on any opportunity I can where I get to read more, learn more and of course, write more!

Katrina

For close to two weeks now most of us down here in Texas have been obsessively watching the news. Morning, noon and night, switching between MSNBC and FOX (sometimes), and admittedly, once in a while tuning into CNN. I don't think that I even have to explain to anyone why. Hurricane Katrina's wrath will no doubt be counted as one of most horrible natural disasters that North America has seen. Though in watching all these days, to the point where I finally have forced myself to turn the television off, what came to mind was whether it was Katrina to blame for all the tragedy or the reaction of the government in stepping in and saving lives.

The day before the storm we were all pretty nervous. Let's face it we are only about a three or four hour drive from New Orleans, and only about an half an hour drive from the Gulf. Hurricane evacuations have happened here in the past, the highway underpasses have flood gauges and people here talk about as though it is a fairly standard procedure. But when New Orleans woke up on that Sunday morning and was told to evacuate because Katrina had shifted towards them instead of the path towards Florida it was a shock and some of us here thought that if it had shifted towards New Orleans then it was entirely possible for it to shift and move towards us too. Normally people probably wouldn't have been so panicked, but a category five storm is pretty fierce. Going to bed on that Sunday night we had been watching the evacuation, had even encountered it ourselves because we only live about forty minutes from the Louisiana border so the traffic on our part of the I-10 was jammed, and were in a way bracing for the worst. But since the weather reports for our region had not changed our fear and concern shifted not for ourselves, but for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It was a very eerie thing to watch a city like New Orleans evacuate. What was scarier was the people who weren't.

The devastating predictions of what would inevitably happen if and when Katrina hit New Orleans were even more disturbing. Listening to reporter after reporter explain the grim reality that the levees would not hold, that this very historic city was in fact, ten or twelve feet below sea level. Should these levees break what could be expected was basically a bowl effect, a bowl of toxic soup.

So with these predictions, with all the evacuation, with the advanced knowledge of the potential situation everyone buckled down and waited for the storm which was in fact ravaging and fierce. Unlike the Tsunami that hit Asia people here saw their disaster coming, what they didn't see, what none of saw or expected was the silence after the storm. Silence in the form of inaction, inaction from the very people who should have been ready to step in immediately after the storm, the government.

The results were horrific. I have spent hours in front of the television with tears in my eyes asking how it is possible that no one seemed to be coming to the rescue of these thousands and thousands of people who were dehydrated, starving, without power and now living in that bowl of 'toxic' soup that had been predicted. And let me tell you something, when it floods, the toilets don't flush. I know this from personal experience because the day of my wedding rehearsal we had a flash flood, the rain came down hard and too fast for water to drain and suddenly looking out my front door it made it seem as though we had lake front property and somebody learnt the hard way that the toilet will not flush when the water has nowhere to go. And aside from the flooding and the destruction which were horrible enough scenes to see I kept wondering how close to ten thousand people inside the Super Dome were surviving?

Last week was a breaking point for a lot of people. Even the reporters were showing their frustration not only in the images that they showed and the interviews that they did but also in their own tone and criticism. How can we let such tragedy continue day after day? Why does this footage so much remind us all of a third world country? How is such a thing possible in such a wealthy country so rich in resources and where so much warning had been given?

All of this will no doubt be a dark shadow that will linger over the current administration. Suddenly we find ourselves with people in need and a strong need for the country's military to come to the aid of its own people and where are they? In Iraq. Far from home. And what is worse, the military that is in fact here at home was not called in to help until five days after the tragedy.

Disgraceful. Disgraceful is a word that we have heard a lot in the last week. I couldn't agree more. Heartbreaking is another word that comes to mind. The countless stories that are told daily of the tragedy, of stranded pregnant women, seniors, children. Of the rape, the violence, the sickness, the death. And then you hear a comment from Dennis Hastert questioning whether we should rebuild New Orleans. (Though now he claims that he was merely asking us to stop and think about 'how' to rebuild the city).

So it has been a disgraceful and heartbreaking two weeks. And yet, there are those people who selflessly helped without waiting for the government. And here in Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and even our own Beaumont and Vidor have been taking people in since the very beginning. Texas schools are now enrolling children from Louisiana in their classrooms. Some will no doubt stay in Texas for a long time because honestly it is hard to tell when it will be safe for anyone to go home, or what used to be home.

My mother-in-law has been sending me a plethora of articles via email to read on the topic. She believes that because New Orleans has such a large poverty rate it is one of the reasons that action was not taken as quickly. Many share this opinion, and add to the fact that the population is predominantly black and a whole new picture is painted. One that just adds to the shame and disgrace that this situation already presents.

There are a lot of good people out there helping, no one should forget that. But what is frustrating is that while average citizens were extending their help the leaders in this country seemed to be sitting on the sidelines as though they were incapable of doing anything. I think that this has shaken a lot of people's faith in their leaders. And for now people are worried about saving lives but I have no doubt that it will not be long before people start demanding some answers as to why the arrival of help and government leadership took so long.

I am adding some links here to articles that I have read in the last week that I think have some very important points to make. I hope that if you can you will take some time to read at least a few of these. If I could recommend any in particular it would be the Chris Floyd article and the Anne Rice, these two are especially powerful. And of course, Michael Moore's letter to President Bush is also well worth reading!

The Perfect Storm -- Chris Floyd -- 1 Sept. 05

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? -- Anne Rice -- 4 Sept. 05

Vacation is Over ... An Open Letter From Michael Moore to George W. Bush -- 2 Sept. 05

No One Can Say They Didn't See It Coming -- Sidney Blumenthal -- 1 Sept. 05

Drowning New Orleans -- Mark Fischetti -- October 2001 -- Scientific America

Katrina: Shock & Awe -- Paul Caruso -- 1 Sept. 05