Headlines

Devastation. Destruction. Disaster. Tragedy.

These words seem to crowd the headlines every day, describing incidents big and small, global and local. They are so overused, in fact, that I'm desensitized to them. So much so that when I saw the first headlines about Hurricane Katrina, I scoffed. What's the big deal about a hurricane, I grumped. I lived in coastal North Carolina for a few years. We had hurricanes almost every season. Trees would fall, some low lying areas would flood, the power would go out, we'd all stay home for a day or two to wait it out then clean up. And then things went back to normal.

What happened to New Orleans this week as a result of Hurricane Katrina is nothing like that. It's incomprehensible to me in a way that I haven’t experienced since September 11. In the weeks after September 11, I read an opinion piece about how the overuse of words like "tragedy" has rendered them meaningless and bereaved us of words we can use to discuss events like September 11, the tsunami in Asia last year, and Hurricane Katrina. We are left with no baseline or reference point for expressing the magnitude of things.

But this linguistic frustration of mine is nothing. Imagine no food, no water, no shelter, no medical supplies, no bathrooms. Everything you own or recognize -- the whole city -- under dozens of feet of water, or worse: gone. You've been told to leave but given no means to do so. You don't know where your friends and family are and have no way to contact or find them. You're scared, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, sick and you have no resources with which to take care of yourself. If you're imagining this, like I am, then be thankful. Because lots of people on the Gulf Coast are living it right now.

It takes only a minute to help them; donate to the American Red Cross (they've received more than $33 million from more than 230,000 donors for hurrican relief so far) or other rescue and relief efforts.

Animals need help too. Many people had to leave their pets behind. You can support the animal rescue and relief efforts through several charities, like North Shore Animal League America.