Kowabunga

As mentioned in my message at the top of my blog, there are ongoing efforts within the blogosphere to help direct readers to organizations that have set up Hurricane Katrina Relief funds, and several bloggers, most notably Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundant, are at the forefront of these efforts.

The magnitude of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is astronomical, and the mainstream media has been doing a tremendous job reporting on it. The scope of this natural disaster is still not known. 80% of New Orleans is reported to be underwater, with some places as deep as 20 feet.

How many people have been made homeless by this disaster has yet to be determined, with some 25,000 refugees heading to Houston, and thousands more displaced in other places in the region, it will be some time before the total number of people living in refugee camps will be known.

The mayor of New Orleans has estimated (guessed) that the death toll there will be in the thousands. If so, this will be the highest death toll due to a natural disaster to hit the United States since the 1906 San Francisco quake. In other places hit by Katrina, the death toll was at 123 as of August 31.

My thoughts and prayers are with all the people hit by Hurricane Katrina.