“We escaped with little more than a suitcase…”

It is very hard to know what to say, from the comfort of London, about the horror that has engulfed New Orleans and nearby places. Johnathan Pearce did his best yesterday, concentrating on what he knows about, which is the financial fall-out and the British news coverage.

But Ben Jarrell‘s situation is very different. Finding the words to describe this catastrophe is the least of his problems, because he and his wife have been personally hit by it. He added what follows as a comment on Johnathan’s posting, but his words, and his predicament, surely deserve a bit more prominence here than that.

I live in uptown New Orleans, and my wife and I evac’d Saturday morning – but as reports of the levees breaking and the city’s poor looting (I’ve heard reports they are looting on my street) I don’t expect to have much of anything left when I get home.

This global warming bullshit is ridiculous, and despite the amount of aid the US provided to the tsunami victims, I still expect the global community will pretend to care while choking back a smirk.

As for FEMA, despite my libertarian leanings, I will be standing in line for whatever I can get. My belongings are insured, but my insurance company won’t pay off on the policy until an adjuster can go in and look at the damage – which could be months.

We escaped with little more than a suitcase full of clothes, and it will be nearly impossible to function for the months it might take to get any resolution to all of this.

It is really surreal. It’s hard to think that we are homeless refugees, but that pretty much sums up our situation.