There are more updates, so I'm able to do more than simply acknowledge that it's going on this time.

Anyway, the good news is that there's only eight fatalities. It could have been a lot worse. New technology has also helped get people to rescue faster who need it the most. For example, an assisted living home populated by wheelchair-bound elders tweeted out a photo of their predicament, and rescue got to them right away. That's great! I'm not seeing the most comprehensive coverage, but the overall tone on the news is pretty calm, and I'm under the impression that we're dealing with this better than the last time we had a storm on this scale.

The bad news: it will take years before a lot of these people get back on their feet again. For almost all of these people, life will never be the same. Even those of us who don't live in Texas will be negatively affected, because this will ripple out to the entire economy. Not only did a ton of people lose their livelihoods, but America just lost 10% of its oil refining capacity.

On a personal note, I did not relate to Katrina back in 2005. I had never been the victim of a flood. However, sometime around 2009, my house got flooded. My room was on the upper floor, so I didn't lose much, but it still affected the entire family. Basically, immediately after we calculated the cost of repairs, I was told, "You're not getting any help paying for college," and that money problem still affects me to this day. So I imagine that the people in Texas are going through that, except several times over. Bear in mine, I only lost half of my house. These people are losing much more. Plus the value of their property is probably much higher.

But at the end of the day, the most important thing is that the people still trapped in flooded areas are brought to safety. We'll hopefully figure the rest out later, but today comes first. Godspeed be with those people.