How can I help?

New Orleans is where my dad grew up, and I've spent a fair bit of time there over the years. Thrilled though I am that so few people died, the city itself (and the surrounding area) are pretty FUBAR. There's an impulse in me to quit my job, hop in my lame Honda station wagon, and head South to help. Or at least join the Red Cross.

What can I do?


My dad's brother, my Uncle Courtney, and his wife, my Aunt Betty, are all right. They left the area just ahead of the storm with my great-Uncle Richard, a thoroughly unlikable retired preacher who is the last of my grandparent's generation on my father's side besides my grandparents themselves. The aforementioned grandparents, as you may recall, live in North Texas, far from the impact zone of Katrina. My dad and my brother Jack were visiting them there on a long-prearranged trip when the storm hit, so they helped to coordinate the Wilson family response to things from there. My mom did not accompany them to Texas: my grandmother Whittlesey (my mom's mom) had to have a heart operation on Monday morning that no one knew she needed until about a week ago. My grandmother came through it fine, as was the prognosis all along, but she's still going to be at the hospital for a few weeks, and my mom is spending a lot of time there with her. My brother Tom is beginning his first semester at the College of Wooster, as you know; so that was all right, best beloved.

Dad & Jack got back last night with news from that side of the family. Court & Betty are driving, with Richard, to Pensicola, Florida by way of Alabama to stay with my Uncle Talbot and Aunt Virginia- not that that area escaped entirely unscathed, but it beats camping out in the Superdome. Apparently, from there, Aunt Betty is going to drive Uncle Richard up here to stay for a time. :-{ To that end, Jack and I spent a bit of time this morning cleaning up Tom's room for Uncle Richard. There's talk, however, of placing him in Goodwin House, the 'faith-based' retirement home of whose board of directors my father was long the chairman, so that's good. He would probably be a lot happier there than staying with us.


My grown cousins, Brooking & Alyssa, are elsewhere in the country- Alyssa and her husband live in D.C., and I'm not actually sure where Brooking lives at the moment. Hmm. But not down in the disaster area, or I would have heard about it. I think.