There's not a whole lot I can say that hasn't been said already. Donate money to the Red Cross and if you're in the Houston area, consider donating blood, as survivors are being evacuated to this area and blood banks are in short supply. Hurricane Katrina has proven to be the worst catastrophe the U.S. has seen, in terms of number of people affected and total property damage. New Orleans is now effectively an extension of Lake Pontchartrain. Where was George Bush during all of this? On vacation, playing a guitar.

I don't mean to make light of the human aspect of this disaster, but another aspect of this disaster that hasn't been covered much is the impact on American energy security and the economy. Well, if you hadn't heard about peak oil, you better start reading about it. The near future is only going to be a small taste of what is to come. The oil industry is on a razor's edge, and now that 20 or more oil rigs are damaged or missing, we're going to see some serious volatility in prices of everything in the near future. Even though the Bush administration has authorized the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to refineries in the short term, large problems still exist, like the fact that South Louisiana and New Orleans were two of the top 5 ports in the nation, and half of the nation's refineries are on the Gulf Coast. Projections for rebuilding New Orleans and the surrounding areas are on the order of months at this point, years for a full rebuild. My guess is that we're going to see $100/barrel crude before the end of the year, and $4/gallon gasoline. Concomitant with that, I expect that prices of everything else will go up because shipping costs will rise. Start saving your money...