>On Dutch TV I just saw the newest impressions and heard the newest number of victims. There may even be thousands of deaths and it will take years, if ever, to reclaim New Orleans. It is indeed a major disaster and I hereby want to express my deepest concern and sympathy for all U.S. citizens and esp. those who live in that area. <

It is even worse than that. One of our biggest cities, and the most romantic depending on how you feel about San Francisco, has basically disappeared under water. They say months, fumbling around blindly, but it can never be rebuilt in anything resembling its former self. I got off the phone a while ago with a reporter from the Chicago Tribune, me looking for inside info on how to help out in person. He was on deadline with a story about how the famous tourist restaurants in the tourist district are gone. I wanted to smack him.