AN ILL WIND

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted September 1, 2005)

Someone once said, "hurricanes are part of southern history, remembered for the damage they cause."

Southern history is now rewritten by Katrina.
American history as well.
From now on, whenever there's talk of hurricanes, you'll hear the name Katrina.

As I watched the television coverage, I was reminded how -- along with all the pain, death and destruction -- for many victims, there is an eerie isolation.

With no electricity, no telephones, no television, newspapers or radio, thousands of people had little knowledge of the magnitude of what had taken place.
The only thing they knew for sure is what happened in their neighborhood.

During one TV interview, a woman in Gulfport, Mississippi was asked how she would compare the destruction there in Gulfport with what was happening in New Orleans.
The woman answered that she had "no idea what's happening to New Orleans."

My heart aches for the people of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

My wife has had difficulty sleeping.
She's not only been haunted by the images from the Gulf coast, she's spent days trying to contact her own parents in Mississippi.

So far, she's still not talked with them, but we did get word that they were safe and -- in fact -- helping operate a shelter for refugees in Laurel.

When all the mournful counting is done, the number of dead along the Gulf coast could reach into the thousands.
If so, it would be the single worst toll of human life in a natural disaster since a hurricane with no name slammed into Galveston, Texas in 1900.
Between 8,000 and 12,000 lives were lost that day.
In those days, there was no advance warning.

Gulfport and Biloxi will spend years rebuilding from Katrina.
There are credible concerns that New Orleans might never recover, at least not in its present location.
Some experts fear that business and industry will never again be willing to invest enormous amounts of money for construction in such a vulnerable location.
Only time will tell.

I've groped for something positive to emerge from all of this.
Maybe we'll be better prepared next time....
Maybe folks will be a little quicker to get out of harm's way....

Maybe there'll be a new awakening in the depths of the human spirit, with a collective commitment to charity and kindness....
Maybe, in each of us -- at least for awhile -- our priorities will again be stacked in proper order.

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