An e-mail:

I’m e-mailing you from a Mississippi newspaper, where I’m a reporter,
that’s about five and a half hours from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. You
would think we’re far removed from the destruction, but we’re not.
Our classified ad rep has a 70-year-old great aunt in Biloxi, and the
aunt is stranded and waiting for help. She said they walked outside their
home to find help but turned around when they saw dead bodies.
One of our reporters interviewed evacuees at the Red Cross shelter,
asking what they need, and they all answered “temporary work.”
A woman from Louisiana said her family feels like “gypsies” because they
can only wander from place to place, not knowing what to do. “We don’t have
anything,” she said.
Our town’s population is about 8,000 people, and evacuees from the coast
number between 800 to 900 right now. That number will climb to 1,000 by the
end of the week when the Red Cross shelter here reaches its maximum capacity
of 200. A volunteer said the hotels are kicking out people because they’re
running out of money, and those people don’t have anywhere else to go.
And now there are rumors of gas shortages.
Our hearts are broken here, and we’re hundreds of miles from the hellhole
on the coast.
It’s getting worse here, not better, and the misery is spreading.