The Dawn Treader

What can I add to the upsurge in blogging about this unbelievable storm?  Not much. In terms of meteorology, the most amazing quote I heard was that Katrina was like a 30 mile wide F3 tornado.

Ever been through or close to a tornado?  I have.  An F1 tornado nearly thumped our house in North Carolina.   I saw the swath of snapped trees cut by that "little" F1.  Trying to comprehend a 30 mile wide F3 is unthinkable.

We lived in Jackson, Mississippi from 1990 through 1992.   We have many friends in that area still.  My father's parents were born and raised near Meridian.  Those communities (in between Jackson and Meridian) took a direct hit.  I don't know how they fared -- news out of Mississippi is sketchy.

In terms of the human tragedy, what can be said other than we need to support these families in prayer and their communities with our money.

UPDATE: I received an email from my aunt in Natchez, MS (175 miles from New Orleans).  Power is out in parts of Natchez, all of Meridian, all of Jackson, all of Tupelo ... you might as well say most of the state is out of power.  Natchez was  around 100 miles from the path of the storm.  It knocked down trees all over the city.  My cousins in Jackson are fine although there is a lot of tree damage.  One of them dodged three tornado touchdowns on his race home from where he works.  I have a cousin named Scott Hawkins who lives in Biloxi.  He is one of the editors for The Sun Herald.   Scott chose to ride out the storm and cover the story.  If you've seen pictures of Biloxi ... the devastation is mind-boggling.  My aunt and uncle just heard word that Scott is alive.  The news from Biloxi is grim -- they are beginning to  collect corpses.

UPDATE: Brian warned me that this story (about the death of the Korean man) is likely an urban legend.  It is very similar to an urban legend floated three years ago.  If it is an urban legend, then many news sources from CNN to BBC will have to retract the story.  The information on South Korea and video gaming is accurate: 30% of the entire nation is online and are registered gamers.  Think about that statistic.

In Are We Amusing Our Kids To Death With Video Games? I raised the issue of the danger in video gaming.  Then I read Man Dies After Gaming Binge.

After a non-stop 50-hour computer-game bender, a South Korean man died from exhaustion at an Internet café in the city of Taegu, revealing a dark side to the booming gaming industry.

The 28-year-old man, identified by his last name Lee, reportedly finished the game session and several minutes later suffered from heart failure, local police said Tuesday.

Over three days, Mr. Lee had left the computer screen only to go the bathroom and take a few brief naps on a makeshift bed, local police said.

Even more surprising, turns out it’s not the first computer game-related death in a country where online video games rule entertainment habits and the national industry leads the world.

In the same article ...

There are more than 20,000 Internet cafes in South Korea dedicated to online video games, where gamers spend hours playing massive multiplayer online role-playing games, called MMORPGs.

South Korea’s gaming industry can thank the fact that it has the world’s highest household broadband penetration rate of more than 75 percent for the big revenues. At the same time, the U.S. had a broadband penetration rate of only 29 percent per household last year. Fewer than 2.5 million Americans play MMORPGs.   

South Korea has a massive problem on its hands.  The country's addiction problem is mammoth -- in more than one way.  The players are addicted to the games -- and the industry is addicted to the massive revenues it generates.