We're all New Orleansians now

I consider myself lucky enough that I don't have any family or friends in New Orleans to worry about (though before this weekend, I was exchanging e-mails with an aunt in Palm Beach County, Fla., just north of where Hurricane Katrina hit there).

And of course, there's more than enough ugliness around the whole looting issue, including the question of who's looting and who's just stocking up on supplies in an emergency. (Food and diapers are one thing, basketball goals and televisions are very much another.) And then, of course, there's this ugly little distinction.

I've been spending far too much time reading up on the whole disaster, but I've been lucky enough to come across some local news sources that provide a close-up view. I've found it much more enlightening than the usual national sources of information. The mass quantities of wire-service photos on yahoo are transfixing, but I haven't seen the citizen-submitted ones from other sites yet. I basically got my start on local blogs here of all places. But the site for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which didn't publish a print edition on Tuesday, is fascinating in its rawness.

I've never been to New Orleans, but I've always wanted to go. I wonder what's there that I'll never see now because of Katrina.