Columbia, Mississippi. There are an awful lot of trees down through here. Mississippi and Alabama tend to get left out during the collective fixation on the plight of New Orleans. But they saw a lot of damage, too. People died there, too. In fact, they took more direct storm damage than Louisiana did.

Through this stretch of road (I'm on US 98 going east) there have been piles of wreckage and debris lying in the median. There have been patches of woods where 70-80% of the trees are down. Utility poles hanging uselessly in a tangle of lines that have already bypassed by new lines on new poles in the rush to re-establish electricity. There are business' signs on the ground. There are destroyed buildings.

I've seen far more destruction in Mississippi than I did in Louisiana. People should not lose sight of the fact that as horrific as the damage in New Orleans was, it was caused primarily by the levees breaking. The full brunt of Katrina hit in Mississippi and Alabam. These people should not be forgotten.