The will be forever etched onto the collective memories of not only those who suffered from it, but their countrymen and those ameriphiles around the world. It has already been compared to the tsunami disaster, not for the amount of people killed, but for the sheer scale of destruction it caused.

When disasters like this happen, we expect our fellow men (and women) to be compassionate, fair, giving, generous, and while this article points out one instance of those that aren’t, I have to say from either experience (of going through 4 hurricanes in 2004) or from watching it on TV, that most have been. But sometimes, the scum surfaces and breathes deeply the air of despair and misery… only likely to increase now that New Orleans is being completely evacuated.

Diane, posted this article a day or two back, when she found that a hotel had suddenly jacked up its pricing from $79 to $200 a night. Wowzer! So overnight a hotel (Comfort Suites) had to make a solid $121 per night more than the previous nights. Uh huh. This practice is commonly called PRICE GOUGING. Comfort Suites, you should be ashamed of yourselves!

If you are reading this, and you feel strongly about Price Gouging, please link this article, or Diane’s. Let’s shame Comfort Suites into a more humanitarian policy.

Update (Aug 31st): I have joined the Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Day. also has a page about the blogging effort.