Today my mother got a long awaited phone call from my sister. She is alive, she has had water and food. She is still in the French Quarter and may be evacuated to Georgia though she (characteristically) wants to stay and help the others trapped, to help in some way. She was very fortunate. I am relieved but exhausted. Having difficulty holding my thoughts together and feeling grateful for my sister's survival but so very pained for the others--the magnitude of the losses and the damage. My health has deteriorated due to stress and lack of sleep yet I absolutely cannot imagine what it has been like for those more ill than I who were actually there. Even the healthiest of people suffered & the death count rises. Relief mixed with grief and sadness that goes farther and deeper than 10,000 miles. Help for many came, too little and too late. Thank you all for your thoughts and kind words. To my dear loving and very gentle friends, thank you for the tender way you didn't leave me alone with this. Your kindness meant the world to me. I must lay down now.