Some interesting thoughts from a Southerner...

Wicked Wish "Look at the helping hands. Last night I took some pride and hope in the airboats, battered pontoons, canoes and other assorted crafts that are coming into the city by the score. FEMA managers smiled like the cavalry had come in; men in lettered jackets began directing men in hunting fatigues to various quadrants of the city. Beat-to-hell trucks are backing up to the water's edge to haul away the sick and injured. It isn't a proper cavalry, I don't suppose. They have no uniforms, most of them. They're the fathers and sons and wives and daughters of soldiers overseas; or they're bayou folk who heard that warm bodies were needed.

They're Texans with medical and fire department personnel from Austin and Houston.
They're power crews from New York and California, making long caravans of equipment and vehicles.

Tennessee is sending volunteers too, because that's what it does. This morning I passed an old Ford Bronco towing a rickety fishing boat with a sign that said, "NOLA OR BUST." The driver probably had to take off work to make this trip. He may well have borrowed money for gas. It might cost him overtime, or repairs to that boat, or a trip to the doctor later on -- but he'll have a home to return to, and he knows how bad off he'd be if the waters rose here. And in this way, one person at a time, the nation rallies."