Rose: "My Katrina"

Rose evacuated before Katrina hit, and is now maintaining a "My Katrina" blog in Baton Rouge. From a 9/18 entry, "The River Center":

Maryann had gone there a couple of days ago to offer to bring some people back here to use our showers and have the chance to relax for a little while and get cleaned up. She connected with a woman and her four grandchildren and although they couldn’t do it that day, Maryann arranged to pick them up today. So off she went in the morning. She was going to take them to a McDonald’s for some lunch, then bring them here, but after a few hours she still hadn’t returned. We finally got a call from her (on the perpetually degrading phone system) saying she was standing in a line outside the River Center still waiting to get inside.

Evidently the security has been ratcheted up quite considerably in the past few days. When Maryann was there on Wednesday there were fewer people being housed there and she had just been able to walk in the door and talk with people. Today, there was a highly visible military presence. She said where she was standing there were a couple of guards, one with his rifle slung over his shoulder, the other with it ready in his hands.

Rose introduces "My Katrina" this way:

This blog started out as a series of emails to family and friends. I decided to blog these emails because I fear that the general public's interest in Katrina is likely to wane well before its effects on the victims. I hope that by writing about my experience -- and remember, I was one of the lucky ones -- that people outside the disaster zone and the surrounding areas will keep thinking about the broader and deeper implications of this disaster and do their damndest to ensure nothing like it can happen again. We can't stop a hurricane, but we can prevent the social tragedy that ensued.