To all who have inquired about us over the last few days, I wanted to\r\npass along some extremely exciting news that we received last night:\r\nNoel\'s sister is getting out of New Orleans!\r\n\r\nPossibly as early as tomorrow morning, replacement doctors are coming\r\nto the hospital, and Renee along with several other doctors who have\r\nbeen working nearly nonstop in these unbelievable circumstances will\r\nbe convoying out. I think Renee is going to Birmhingham first for a\r\nlittle R&R with one of her best friends. She\'ll hopefully be joining\r\nus either here in Destin, or in Baton Rouge next week.\r\n\r\nI\'m anxious to hear her stories about working in the sole functioning\r\nhospital in the stricken area. Over the phone she has described the\r\nsadness of having to close and lock their doors while the National\r\nGuard dropped refugees rescued from rooftops outside. The hospital\r\nwas quite concerned about an influx of patients straining their\r\nalready thin supplies; they had no national guard available to contain\r\nany type of riot, so they didn\'t want to try to bring insufficient\r\nfood to the developing crowd. Finally, some doctors did go out and\r\nfind the seriously injured and bring them in for treatment, but they\r\ncontinued to keep the hospital doors locked. What a difficult\r\nsituation for a group of people (doctors, nurses, everyone) used to\r\ntrying to *help* people.\r\n\r\nThe hospital was hoping to have their electricity restored today. If\r\nthey do, that has to qualify as a miracle of the first order, given\r\nthe state of the city. I imagine that since its the only functioning\r\nhospital, the utility company is focusing lots of efforts on keeping\r\nit running.\r\n\r\nThe hospital is located very near the Mississippi River. So, while\r\nthey have not had running *drinking* water since this tragedy started,\r\nthey do have a well to pull water from the river. So they have\r\ncontinued to have the ability to shower and flush toilets.\r\n\r\nYesterday, I listened to a radio report from the president of St.\r\nCharles Parish (for those of you who don\'t already know, a \"Parish\" in\r\nNew Orleans is about the equivalent of a county for the rest of normal\r\nAmerica). They are the 2nd parish west of New Orleans, about 20-30\r\nmiles west of downtown. While he reported that they have almost\r\nentirely restored sewer and running water, they had not restored\r\nelectricity. Then he described how they were starting to receive\r\nrefugees who had walked the highways from New Orleans. He said, then,\r\nin effect: \"You think of electricity as an essential requirement. And\r\nthen you meet people who walk 40 miles for a bottle of water.\"\r\n\r\nWe are more and more convinced that our house has water. C\'est la\r\nvie. We\'ve been scouring unbelievably clear satellite images hosted\r\nat http://www.noaa.gov, but thus far have not found our house. We\r\nhave found Noel\'s parents house in Pass Christian, MS. That was\r\nanother success! Its standing; it appears there may be a tree down on\r\nit, and the boat that we had carefull parked and stowed right next to\r\nthe house on a trailer was obviously dislodged and moved - which means\r\nthe storm surge pushed enough water into the house to float the boat\r\nand trailer parked right next door. C\'est la vie.\r\n\r\nWe have housing arranged in Baton Rouge (where we\'ll be living with my\r\nin-laws), and are now looking into schooling options for the kids.\r\nCarrie\'s school is part of a nationwide network of Sacred Heart\r\nschools, and there is another one located in Lafayette, Louisiana,\r\nabout an hour west of Baton Rouge. We may send her there, working out\r\nbussing with several other families who will also be in Baton Rouge.\r\nWe are also exploring coed Catholic schools in Baton Rouge itself.\r\nRight now, the kids are excited about the chance to go to school\r\ntogether (they are both normally in single-sex schools).\r\n\r\nYesterday, we told the kids that we weren\'t going back to New Orleans\r\nany time soon, and that they would be in school elsewhere. We told\r\nCarrie first, and she ran off to sit by herself and cry. Absolutely\r\nbroke my heart as I peeked into her room and saw her hugging and\r\ncrying and talking to her one stuffed animal that we brought. We then\r\ntold Robert, and he also started crying and ran off to the bedroom.\r\nAnd then we watched as Carrie put on a happy face, sat down next to\r\nRobert and tried to explain to him why it wasn\'t so bad, and how much\r\nfun they might have. Both kids have been great.\r\n\r\nBaton Rouge will be another interesting experiment, as a city of\r\n300,000 grows to 500,000 or more in the span of a month. Housing and\r\noffice space are at an absolute premium, and I watched my\r\nfather-in-law on the phone yesterday having to sign long term leases\r\nfor office space for his law firm without being able to read them\r\ncompletely, or discuss fully with the rest of his partners, because\r\nother law firms were trying to get the same space.\r\n\r\nThanks again for hearing me out. It helps me to type and remember\r\nmany of the good things that are happening to us here.