Hurricane Katrina and disaster relief

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by Hurrican Katrina, those who, like cncz and Maitri, are worried for the safety of their family and friends, and for their loved ones' homes and jobs utterly destroyed in the wake of the hurricane.

Maitri, especially, has been writing much about Louisiana, although she has safely evacuated to Houston, from where she has turned her weblog into a "Katrina resource full of neighborhood information, updates from the ground and opinion."

Michael in New Orleans "is providing posts from his refuge in a highrise in the CBD. He has diesel-fueled generators and, amazingly enough, Internet connectivity" [via Anne Central and Looka].

Sunni Sister has some thoughts on both Hurricane Katrina and the nearly 1,000 Shia Muslim pilgrims who died in a stampede in Baghdad just a couple of days ago [via Sister Scorpion].

And wicked_wish has composed an extremely thought-provoking essay entitled "Disjointed thoughts on the socio-economics of disaster" [EDIT: via Saurav at Dark Days Ahead]. Go read.

When you are done, help somehow, if you can. Here is a good place to start.