"Thank You Sir! May I Have Another!"

Assignments like this are so strange. You never know where you are going to end up the next day.

Two days ago a woke up off a floor in Plaquemine at 5am and drove to New Orleans. I worked in New Orleans yesterday and today, stayed in a $3000 dollar a month apartment last night, left New Orleans at 3pm and now, seven hours later I am in the Lauberge Du Lac hotel and resort in Lake Charles, on the other side of the state.

My newspaper doesn't really like me enough to put me up in digs like this BTW... a Best Western or Motel 6 usually does the trick. But this was one of four rooms available in the greater Lake Charles area, and this is where they want me in the morning.

"Thank You Sir! May I Have Another!"

Tomorrow we start the cycle over again. Talking to hopeful homeowners and fleeing residents about their worst nightmare.. a Cat5 storm parked off the coast and building itself into a life and home eating machine.

Today we were in St. Bernard Parish and so many of the deputies and firemen there were praying for the storm to swing and hit them again. "We have nothing left..." one said. "It can't hurt us anymore, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. If I could take it I would." Such an unselfish act is amazing to me. Here we sit in the dining hall of a cruise ship. The only place left in all of St. Bernard deemed inhabitable. The rest of the parish is truly destroyed. No power, no water, oil slicks cover the neighborhoods.

And these men want to take on Rita to save a community in the next state.

In the meantime I await orders from the man in charge to decide if I should chase this storm into Texas or stay behind and shoot the LSU-Tennesee game on Saturday.