Broken Cities - Broken Families

As some of you know, my family hails from the New Orleans/Jefferson Parish area. My parents have retired to Arkansas along with my father's mother, and my dad's twin brother and wife live in Colorado. All the rest still live down there - or did.

My Great-Aunt Mabel (my dad's Aunt) came to visit my folks in Arkansas last week, and my mother flew with her back to New Orleans last Saturday, so she could visit with her own mother, whom she hasn't seen in three years. They were met at the airport by my dad's cousin Erin (Mabel's daughter), and her husband Kenny. I believe they had already packed for the evacuation order which came down sometime before the plane landed, and intended to leave the airport for a hunting camp 30 miles outside Natchez, Misssissippi.

That was the last we heard from any of them for three nervous days.

My father finally got a static-ridden call from Kenny's cell phone reporting that they were OK and heading to a location where my dad could come pick up my mom. Initial reports (don't know the source or accuracy thereof) claim that my Great-Aunt Mabel's home was spared, but it will be at least a month before the local government will let anybody back to stay in their homes in Jefferson Parish.

We've heard nothing from or about the rest of our family down there as yet.

If you pray, now is a good time to do so on behalf of all those displaced by the storm, and those still unaccounted for or stranded in the broken cities.