Sunday, August 28, 2005

News and Notes

Hurricane Katrina

National Weather Service Urgent Message for New Orleans

"Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog" at Weather Underground gives the reasons why this is very serious indeed.

StormTrack is a useful weblog for finding updates.

For those interested in the raw data, the National Data Buoy Center has information from its measuring devices in the area.

Pray for the safety of those in the danger zone. (Harrison has family not far from New Orleans who can't evacuate for medical reasons. Pray for them as well.)

Everyone will be affected in some way. Mpgdigest notes the rather serious damage Katrina is inflicting - and will continue to inflict - on U.S. petroleum supply (see also The Oil Drum). The BellSouth Newsroom keeps track of damage and repair to the telephone network. Environment Canada has a useful page, regularly updated, on the probable path Katrina will follow over land. The U.S. National Hurricane Center is a good place to go for further information.

March on Washington

Ralph Luker at Cliopatria notes that today was the 42nd anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
You can read and hear it here.