Merry Christmas.

We are back home. We drove three long days from New Orleans, getting in last night. The twinkly Christmas decorations all over town were welcoming in the dark. It was the quietest Christmas Eve I've had.

It's weird to be home, sort of. I was just getting used to finding my way around in New Orleans. Of course the food was absolutely fabulous (unlike the culinary black hole that is Utah). It was a privilege to be there and see everything first-hand. One survivor told me that the nation needs to know how severe and widespread the damage is. People need to see it to "get it." It has been almost four months since the storm, but because the scale of damage is so huge, it seems like very little is getting done. It seemed the city was slowly awakening the longer we were there--traffic got worse, more people were out working, and you saw less of the MPs. It was interesting and uplifting to see that arc over nine days. I guess folks just wanted to be home for the holidays, even if that meant living in a trailer in their front yard.

It's hard to describe what we left down south. I have to say that I'm glad New Orleans is still there, even in its truncated, post-Katrina incarnation. Aside from actually working while I was there, I have to be honest and say that I wanted to see if the city's soul was still intact. I wanted to know with my own eyes if the people were broken and beaten down, or if they were getting motivated and picking up the pieces. I now have no doubt they are making it; you can handle anything as long as you can party in the streets on Sunday afternoon.

I cannot even imagine the number of square miles that are completely devastated. It's overwhelming, and the rebuilding is beginning, but it's going to be a long, long haul. The 2004 hurricane season was not pleasant either, and I'm sure Florida is still trying to pick up the pieces from their troubles. I pray 2006 is a little easier on the Gulf Coast.