I had an interesting encounter today, returning from CompUSA where I was returning a few video cards from work. I encountered a hitchhiker with a heavy backpack, and since I had plenty of room, I offered him a ride. He was a refugee from New Orleans, who had been on the road since early morning. Along with a small group of others, he had taken a canoe from his neighbor, who had told him it was his if he could use it. Together, they managed to make it to a dry section of highway and hitched a ride out of the city, leaving the canoe to some others who were staying.

He was trying to reach the Centroplex in downtown Baton Rouge, where emergency shelter has been set up. He hadn't eaten since the previous day, so I took him out for lunch. While I was there, I found out that there had just been an armed robbery of a gas station nearby — presumably other refugees had been more desperate. The situation seems to be bringing out the best and the worst in humanity at the same time; the waitress gave my refugee companion the phone number of the restaurant and offered to donate some soap and towels if it would help. After eating, I drove him to the Centroplex, which turned out more difficult to do than I expected. Various roads have been closed off in that area downtown, which is already a mess of one-way streets in that area. Traffic was tight. Emergency vehicles threaded their way through on a regular basis. I got within a block, but nearly got stuck, and he said that we were close enough, and he could walk the rest of the way. I wished him luck, and made my way back home.

With 80% of New Orleans flooded and a number of other areas similarly uninhabitable or destroyed, the number of displaced people is somewhat staggering. If you have space where you could let someone stay, MoveOn is hosting a shelter matching service, http://www.hurricanehousing.org/, where if you have space available you can register yourself and how many people you can shelter temporarily, and others can find out what is available in their area. LSU has also set up a volunteer hotline where people in Baton Rouge can register to donate time, skills, and/or shelter, though the hotline isn't accepting monetary donations at this time (thanks to Jeff Sheldon for pointing this out to me).