Deb and I just got a
visit from a friend who lived for many years in Bay St. Louis, Miss. (25 miles east of N.O.) and we got a second hand account of the events in the gulf area.

Here are the salient points:

- His son is a police officer in Waveland, Miss., a town that adjoins Bay St. Louis. He last heard from him Sunday morning. That morning, Jeremy, the son, was headed in to the PD (police dept) for emergency duty. He just heard from him again today and learned the following: He was in the station with 15 or so other officers when the two 30 foot walls of water hit. When the water level filled up the first floor, they all took off their boots, ditched their weapons, and jumped out the window. They then swam for their lives for the next four hours. He survived as did all the other officers.

- Jeremy is now dealing with picking out bodies of his friends in what is left of Waveland, which is essentially nothing. He has lived in that town of 9,000 for 20 years and knows (knew) most everybody in the town.

- My friend fears that many of his friends in Bay St. Louis - he was a church pastor there for 20 years - may be dead, as there is not much left of either Waveland or Bay St. Louis.

- His observations about N.O. cleared some things up for me. 70% of N.O. is black. Half of those are clearly in the lower echelons of black society. (Most of the upper echelon black folk left N.O. long ago). He makes the claim (which sounds most plausible to me) that what you see on TV of the chaos on the streets is the result of the "projects" being let loose on the streets. The projects are black housing where anarchy has reigned for 20 years. He said that 20 years ago, he wouldn't go in them in daylight unless he was armed. He said he wouldn't venture in them at night under any condition. The N.O. police have had a hands off policy in the projects for years. They are unable to administer any kind of law enforcement in them and so they leave them be. Now, they are free to do whatever they want since there is no way to stop their actions. It is what you clearly see on TV.

- He made the claim that there was (and still is) a simple solution for the able bodied that are stuck in the mess in N.O. They can walk north on the levee. 70 miles to Baton Rouge if necessary. There are other towns along the way to B.R. He expressed frustration in that, rather than taking that initiative, they insist on standing around asking for deliverance. His opinion may sound harsh to you, but his judgment sounds good to me. (Some who favor a welfare state may not agree with the implication that it brings a systemic problem, in that people eventually lose any native notion of self-determination.)

- I asked him for his theological take on the disaster. Especially regarding the opinion of some who say that this disaster is God's judgment on a morally corrupt city. His answer was simply to begin listing the churches he knows of that have been destroyed, and parishoners who have died.

- He pointed to the garden of Eden and what transpired there to explain in general why these disasters happen. We live in a cursed place.

- He also expressed the opinion, contrary to some that N.O. should be leveled and forgotten, that the city would be rebuilt, mostly because N.O. is an extremely important (to the U.S) port city and a major energy cog for the country. It needs to be rebuilt.

- He spoke with us for an hour and was clearly shaken but is also very thankful that his son is alive and well, and coming to SD for his wedding next week.