I don’t really have words to describe my reaction to the images and stories coming from New Orleans and the other places where the hurricane laid waste to the puny works of man. I am a little worried, however, for a client who called yesterday. He started off by inquiring about corporate/temporary housing, because it turns out he thinks his house in a small Louisiana town is “gone.”

Then he told me that he hasn’t heard from his son since the day of the storm, and the last piece of advice that he gave him was to take the chainsaw to the attic. Some of the neighbors were sheltering in the house with him because he had the only 2 story house on the block, and they were getting ready to move upstairs and wait it out.

I hope he and the neighbors are okay. Sadly, a lot of pets and farm animals have very little chance of survival; I heard a man on NPR this morning talking about how they’d had to leave their 3 cats behind.

In addition to the American Red Cross and other relief organizations like Episcopal Relief and Development, the Humane Society of the US is gearing up to rescue animals, and so is a charity called Noah’s Wish.

And if anyone thinks “screw the pets” or “save what’s left of the cats and dogs next week” like a couple of posters did on a Flickr forum, I don’t want to know about it. Do not mention it in my hearing or be prepared to deal with the consequences…