I'm okay, but...

Thanks to everyone who has been trying to contact me to make sure I'm okay. I spent the last two days in Memphis with an old friend and we actually had a pretty good time, until the news started to get worse. Now that it's apparent that I wont be able to go back for awhile, I'm on my way to St. Louis to stay with my parents. Hank is fine. He's being remarkably well-behaved. Poor Miss P, though, I let myself get talked into leaving her behind.

The news is really scary. I'm sitting in the Barnes & Noble in Cape Girardeau, MO trying not to cry. Yesterday it seemed like the city had dodged the worst of it, but the situation is getting worse. The flooding is getting deeper, my house is almost certainly at least partially underwater, looting is apparently out of control and martial law has been imposed, and I can't get in touch with anyone with a 504 exchange. Most of the people I know got out, but I'm worried about my landlady and the old lady next door. I'm worried about all of us. I've heard that the people sheltered in the Superdome are being evacuated since the roof is collapsing.

I didn't take much with me, and I probably have lost what I left behind. I really loved that house, too. I don't know what's going to happen with school. I'm bereft and adrift. But I'm still breathing air, and that's the most important thing.