Overwhelmed describes it.
Troubling also describes it.
Sad, depressing, and . . . well, words fail.
This thing that has happened to New Orleans is all of those, but more too.
And not just New Orleans, but Mobile, Pascagoula, Baton Rouge, and north to Hattiesburg; an area as large as Great Britain is demolished and devastated. Everything, gone. Savings and houses, cars and boats, jobs and a lifetime of work.

I have heard some say that this was God's judgment on New Orleans because it is the "Big Easy," referring to the easy access to sin in the city; Gay Pride Parades, for example, which were scheduled for the next week after the storm. One rabbi said it was God's judgment on America for supporting the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. An Immam has said it was God's judgment on America for supporting Israel.

God's judgment always came with clear prophetic warnings beforehand, warning of the specific judgment that would befall because of specific sins; this was not the case here, as it was not the case with the tsunami last December either. I don't think this was the hand of God. This was a natural event that was predictable to some degree; witness the New Orleans newspaper The Times Picayune, which predicted this very scenario in articles since 2002: the category 4 storm, the breaking of the levees in multiple places, the disaster at the Super Dome, etc.

Having said that, it was the hand of God in that we live in a sinful and fallen world. Natural disasters occur because human sin impacted more than the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, it also impacted nature. Creation groans, says the Apostle Paul in Romans 8: 22, awaiting deliverance from our sin.
I see even more of the sinful behavior in the aftermath. The police had to release the criminals from the jails so they would not drown in their cells, but did not evacuate them. What were the looters taking from stores? Some took perishable food: milk, bread, frozen food; O.K., I understand and sympathize with them. But, more people stole electronics (where were they going to plug them in?), expensive clothes (were they dressing up for a ball?), expensive sneakers (in sizes they could not wear), and looted casinos for their cash (any idea how much $1,000 in quarters weighs?), looted hotels for electronics and liquor, and looted Walmarts for liquor, guns and ammo. Does anyone know how many liquor bottles were found in the refuse of the Superdome? Liquor bottles predominated the trash in the building. No wonder there were such horrific crimes inside the Superdome, evacuees victimizing fellow evacuees.

Worse than that are the web sites that have popped up to defraud well meaning donors for their donations to good organizations like Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and charitable church groups; each of which are more effective than most in their humanitarian work. Thieves and frauds get me steamed pretty quickly, because they make bad situations worse.

The other (last) thing that gets me shouting at the TV is when I see (hear) people saying that this is slavery or racism. Claims that the poor and people of color are victimized by the Federal government by design make me crazy. Most of the storm victims were black because 80 - 90% of the New Orleans population is/was black; now that they are being evacuated, what color should we expect, purple? If most of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and church relief agencies on site are made up of whites, then where are the black church relief agencies?

Why is race an issue at all? Suffering people are suffering people, regardless of their color. Displaced people need placement, hungry people need food, jobless people need jobs, they have one thing in common with people who were not directly affected: they are people.

As Christians we can do at least two things: give to reputable charities (contact your church for guidance there), and pray; then give some more and pray yet more again. What will you do?