prowling through the numerous threads on the hurricaine disaster on the Gulf Coast, it bothers me there's not more focus on those folks, the modest heroes who have been working quietly and steadily to set things right again against overwhelming odds and misery.

Disasters bring out the worst in people and also the best. I would just like to dedicate this thread to highlighting those deeds and the quiet heroes and the small blessings that came during the dark times. What really matters in the face of a human tragedy is not the extent of the destruction but the character of those who rise above it and (to parphrase Terry Pratchett) just do their damn jobs. So please keep political comments, speculations and whatnot in the other threads best suited to recieve them.

I'd like to kick off by commenting on something I heard over the radio, the commentary of a young woman in one of the other areas also hit by the disaster that moved me to tears. She'd been going from shelter to shelter trying to locate various missing relatives and I believe I understood her to be a nurse because she commented on the extent of the injuries she had seen and had done what she could to help them out while she attempted to locate her own missing family. I also read about dispatches from my own church going down to the stricken areas and instead of randomly sending supplies, went in and assessed first what people were in need of the most desperately and how much they needed and then set to work taking care of it for them. Among others things, about eleven trailers were transported into one hard-hit area to provide shelter for a number of families.

My uncle's sister had to go on mandatory lockdown in the hospital she worked in and after a few tense days she finally was able to call and let him know she was okay. They had been forced to leave their pet cats in their home and though sadly they lost some of them to the rising waters, two cats were fortunately found alive.

Little things I know. Perhaps not so important. But sometimes it is the little things that matter the most or at least this is the way I feel about it. You do what you can.