bless them all

this is the difference between sad and pathetic. the tragic aftermath of katrina is wearing me down. i haven't felt this sad and distracted since 9|11. for anyone who's followed my saga for the past months -- this feeling makes more clear what i was experiencing when i was dealing with the brunt of my heartbreak of last winter -- that was pathetic. a sort of weak, self-pitying, ugly state of mind. miserable, yes, but nothing like this feeling.

a feeling of overwhelming loss. of connection. of awe.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WGUS84 KLIX 021902
FLSLIX
LAC051-071-031845-

FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS-BATON ROUGE LA
ISSUED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
200 PM CDT FRI SEP 2 2005

...WATER LEVELS IN NEW ORLEANS HAVE STABILIZED...

...UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING WILL CONTINUE IN THE NEW ORLEANS AREA FOR
THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE...

OFFICIAL REPORTS CONTINUE TO INDICATE THAT NEW ORLEANS WATER LEVELS
HAVE STABILIZED. HOWEVER...CATASTROPHIC FLOODING CONTINUES OVER A
LARGE PART OF THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA.

OBVIOUSLY...THE FLOODING IS NOT LIMITED ONLY TO THE CITY OF NEW
ORLEANS. AREA RIVER FLOOD INFORMATION (INCLUDING SOUTHEASTERN
MISSISSIPPI) IS BEING PASSED ALONG IN THE PRODUCTS NEWFLWLIX AND
BHMFLWMOB. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN MOBILE ALABAMA IS
ALSO UPDATING THE NEW ORLEANS AREA FLOOD SITUATION VIA THE DAILY
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK PRODUCT NEWHWOLIX.

IN THE EVENT THAT A SITUATION ARISES FOR A CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE
...PLEASE SEE THE PRODUCT NEWCEMLIX.

THIS PRODUCT WILL BE UPDATED APPROXIMATELY EVERY 12 TO 24 HOURS...OR
IMMEDIATELY ...IF LATE BREAKING FLOOD INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.


MEDLIN
$$

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

it's all so awful. i was on this page, and i was clicking on the various links to parish information. they're frozen -- if you can get to a page at all, it's stopped in time -- the last updates happened before katrina struck.

calendars still show events scheduled for the rest of the year.

no one alive ever expects life to change immeasurably, to be transformed so completely, so terribly, in so little time.



it reminds me too much of the days and weeks immediately following 9|11. you click on a link to a site you used to visit, and you get that error message, which you typically can ignore. if you didn't know any better, you'd just think the server was down.

but now, you get it. and you can see images. the server's down, alright. it's gone. the building it was in is gone. everything's wet, or crushed, or covered in water, completely submerged. it's awful. destroyed. uprooted.

schools are closed "until further notice."

it's all too awful.