so if you want another update, this is part of an email i just sent to my friend lei lani, who happened to escape nola on sunday.  she's currently in seattle, though her roots and family are here,  it's easier for me to copy/paste than type the same info in a different voice.  so please bear with the personal tone:

i'm staying with shannon, and guests keep showing up. bradley and family went home, but my aunt betty showed up tonight, displaced from mandeville since st. tammany is not allowing anyone to enter for awhile. the news keeps getting worse, but i've eventually begun getting looser about it, since you can't really do anything after awhile but try to find your sense of humor. it's just so bad that it's hard to believe it's happening. and i've been nauseous over it, so i'm trying toward levity.

the news: i don't know what you're hearing, but it really is dire. today everything changed for the worse -- like it wasn't already bad enough. a breach in the levee system was discovered at the 17th st. canal. the army corps of engineers failed with their plan to stop it up, so now all we can do is wait for the fishbowl of new orleans to fill up with water till equillibrium is reached -- via a 9 foot surge, a wall of water entering in. i don't know how any of us are going to survive -- like how to get paid, because it's not like the bills are going to stop coming in. damn house note, especially. sigh. what will all these people do? what will i do?

before that, the news was that schools wouldn't go in session till december, that entergy would have to rebuild their entire system, that lakeview had water up to the rooftops of single story houses. and the pictures of veterans blvd were just gut-wrenching. it was a river -- my stomach felt like lead. also, jeff parish had announced that their residents could go in to look and assess property damage and rescue belongings on monday morning at 6 am, then plan on moving elsewhere for at least a month before returning to live (this is with jeff parish being better off than orleans parish), but i don't know if the new news has changed that. now it might be a longer delay. maybe my dad will hire me as a butcher? :)

i'm sure you're reading all the group emails -- i haven't even started to open them, though i can't believe that andy and michelle had to leave lucille {if you're reading this on the blog and didn't get that reference, that's a couple of friends who just had a premature baby and had to leave her behind in a hospital in uptown new orleans because she can't survive without medical assistance -- and they can't contact the hospital for news}. my god, the horror of this thing. it is so surreal. like walking up to my parents' house today -- their road taped off with yellow police "caution" tape, and i was so scared, wondering why. but it was just that a power line was down a few feet away from their driveway. i don't know if my house is flooded, if there's a tree on it, or what. and that's everyone. i guess, on the bright side, that i have nothing to do now but sit in a library somewhere and write that damned diss.

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[E & L in Austin]

Whatever you need, T. And if you know anyone who needs a room for however long, we've got one. And we've got a great big place in our hearts for you, Jesse & all of yours. Keep the faith.