The tornadoes hit New Orleans

Last night, around 3:30am, several tornadoes touched down in New Orleans. The dogs and I are fine--the damage was mostly Uptown and on the Westbank, and it is pretty shocking, particularly around Maple and Carollton, where homes were completely ripped open. Nagin, who has been utterly silent in response to the continued murders in the city since the march last month, did manage to talk to the press regarding last night's storm damage. He basically says: We're all in this together. New Orleans is resilient, blah blah blah. It is bewildering that he understands, at least in a superficial way, the need for the mayor to respond to a storm and to assure the citizens that he is aware and concerned. Yet, when I teenager gets shot by another teen who got the gun from his mother, Nagin doesn't consider that the community needs any guidance.

Things were a little quiter here, but it still sounded like nothing else. The sky was crackling like gunfire, Brando was pacing through the house, and Sula managed to settle down, even though she's the one who always has trouble with these things.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon at the City Council's crime meeting with Riley and DA Jordan. I'll post more about it later, although at this point it doesn't seem to be the most important thing to do...