I have been reading the Times-Picayune online from New Orleans. It has updated news on the situation.

The first one I saw this morning was about a radio guy who stayed. It talked of the evacuation from the station after all the windows blew out. It talked about the discouragement, the horror, the sadness. Then it ended like this:

By the time New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas joined Cohen and Chris Miller on WWL in mid-afternoon, the things he’d seen in the streets were going to be literally unforgettable.

He’d seen a body, probably many, in the water on a reconnaissance boat trip.

“I still see that body,” he said. “I see his position. I see the color of the clothes he had on.”

He’d seen looters, too, and asked anybody with ulterior intentions “to get on your knees and pray for intervention.”

He’d seen hell where a kind of heaven should be.

He’d heard references to Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Maybe God’s going to cleanse us,” said Thomas.

No place is that wicked.

Thomas did not add that last quote. That last quote is from Dave Walker, a TV columnist. And he’s wrong. Many places have been that wicked. Sodom and Gomorrah obviously. But also Jerusalem and the whole of Israel, several times throughout history. Was Jerusalem raping all their visitors and murdering every virgin? No. They were not worshipping God. They were worshipping other gods. They were not following the laws given to them.

And for the first time I am wondering if Katrina was a call to the US to “hear my call and turn from their ways and repent.” I hope not. But I wonder. And I am praying. “When my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray.. Then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sins, maintain their cause, and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14.)