...currently reached Category V status....

...projected to cut a path from Grand Isle through Covington....

...Katrina will drop an estimated 20" of rainfall....

...the rain has stopped, but the water keeps rising, AND NO ONE CAN FIGURE OUT WHY....

...people are cutting through their own rooves amid 20 foot flooding....

...all power and gas has failed....

...estimated 10,000 dead or missing....

You guys had to realize this post was coming.

A year ago today was a very, very dark day for my new home. And not just because it was raining sheets all day and the wind was blowing well over 100 mph (160 km/h).

365 days ago, "normal" life for 600,000+ people began to permanently unravel. Many lost homes. Some lost loved ones. Several others have since lost the will to go on. Even those that remain, the lens through which we see the world can never have the same focus it had at the end of July 2005.

Katrina brought out the best and worst showed in a lot of people last year. Some places are bustling as all get out, and some just have the very rudimentary services available to abandoned structures. Just last week, the Redwood Park apartments, 2/3 of the way closer to the office than my apartment (and which I had considered moving to) had finally commenced the full demolition of every structure.

Today I got to see Waveland, Mississippi, for the first time since February 2005. I saw fireplaces. I saw slabs with stairs. I saw empty pools. I saw some new homes that had obviously been built after the storm.

There is a long, long road ahead. It has an end, certainly, but those that make it to the finish line may not ever look back on the route in complete peace.

Katrina was one of those that, even at the age of 7, you'll still tell your grandkids about, as a cautionary tale.

I close with a line from Job 1, a line that has made it into a few songs I've heard on the radio:

And Job said,

"Naked I came from my mother's womb

Naked I shall return

The LORD gives and the LORD takes away

Blessed be the name of the LORD"

Sometimes, that's all you can do. One of those times was August 29, 2005.

-KIE