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What a relief! An acquaintance from New Orleans showed up in my computer buddy list this morning. She and her family made it safely out of town, some of them going to Texas, the rest to Atlanta. Phones don't work, including cell phones, but she said that thanks to her computer and Internet access she had located most of her loved ones and they are safe.

Not so much her home town. New Orleans residents are generally less well informed than the rest of us, because they don't have access to the news media. And those who have gotten far enough away from town to see the news are getting the disaster story we are all getting, plus rumors. Not very satisfying when there may be nothing left of your home.

The images on television news are something from a science fiction movie, where some horrible water monster has literally destroyed a major American city. When Lansing was flooded six or seven years ago it was bad enough, but the waters receded and we recovered. It will be years before New Orleans is restored. In the short term the city government seems to have lost control, another scary scene from the likes of the movie "Independence Day."

The good news is that people are helping. My friend reports that Texas has been wonderful, offering refuge to thousands upon thousands of people with no place to go. The Red Cross and communities across the nation, including many organizations in Lansing, stand ready to offer assistance. And FEMA has kicked in to assist victims with living allowances for the short term while the long term damage is assessed.

Even though she is one of the lucky ones, on dry land in Atlanta, she is stunned like so many of her neighbors. Her son's house is flooded, and hers may have been destroyed by a tornado. She is deciding whether to go back or to settle in Atlanta. In either case she'll be starting a new life. And she is feeling lucky to have a life to start anew.

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