Snippets of hope from the Storm

WITH NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin saying that 10,000 may have died from Hurricane Katrina's wrath in the Crescent City, there have been snippets of hope throughout one of North America's greatest tragedies.
E-mails and text-messages have uncovered stories certainly not seen on television.
This one comes from the Mobile, Alabama Register's missing persons' forum and reads with the overline: WE FOUND THEM!
Hey, we found Sheila Loden, Mary-Jean and Frank Dean, and Boyd and Sammy Albritton! They are alive and well. Phone lines are down in the area. They said that's the only reason they did not call. So other families please be patient as hard as it may be. Most people in the Popularville area are fine. Just have no way to make contact. Thank you, Red Cross. Most people left in a hurry and don't even have family contact numbers with them. Do not be alarmed! Keep praying!
SHELTER FROM THE STORM: One of those with a sense of hope in this terrible storm has been Franklin Graham, who has challenged Christians to open the doors of churches to the victims of Katrina. "There needs to be a challenge now to our churches, I know individual churches have done this. But this needs to be organized by the denominations themselves, where there would be a collective effort all across the Southeast of all denominations to take in families ... I think the churches of America can step up to the plate. If every church in the Southeast took in 10 families, this would put a big dent in this problem." Already, certain denominations are helping churches arrange shelter for displaced families such as Southern Baptist Convention -- North American Mission Board, Louisiana District Council of the Assemblies of God, Baptist Missionary Association of America, Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod, Presbyterian Church in America and Presbyterian Church (USA).
RED CROSS MOBILIZATION: With the American Red Cross launching its largest ever mobilization of resources for a single disaster, Don Shropshire of the Canadian counterpart said: "We have offered our colleagues in the United States our full support for this disaster. At present the American Red Cross has requested that the Canadian Red Cross send highly-trained disaster response volunteers and we are currently preparing our team to travel to the U.S. Then he added: "The Canadian Red Cross has received hundreds of calls from Canadians wanting to help the people impacted by this disaster and will accept funds designated for Hurricane Katrina." Already, 25 Disaster Services volunteers that will head for Houston include: Todd Weiss, Bridget Brown, Brenda McCarrell, Karen Charles, Ruth Brumwell, Mae Beauvais, Robin Bondy, Ted Giannini, Robert McLay, Suzanne Mariage, Bonnie Kearns, Peter Kearns, Pamela Whitnall, Heidi Gorham, Charles Newman, Oneil Ouellet, Deborah Stewart, David Arsenault, Mary Lou Leroy, Rylee Madison, Don Colp, Richard Harvie, Kent Leigh, Sandra Miller and Sandy Reynolds. These volunteers will help in managing 270 shelters and delivering some 500,000 hot meals daily.
A STORY OF SURVIVAL: In checking out the Mobile Register came this story by staff reporter Roy Hoffman. It read in part: "With sodden mattresses piled in the yard, and a tiny Buddha in the window, the Ngan family lingered on the steps of their Bayou La Batre home, telling of the day that nearly washed away their lives, and of a neighbor who appeared as if divinely summoned. "I was scared, so scared, and crying," said Chandara, the mother, of the rising waters of Katrina. As she spoke in halting English, the smaller of her seven children, ages 19 to 9, smiled and giggled. "We thought," said oldest son Sopheap, 19, helping his mother out, "it could have been the end." When Katrina roared in last Monday, Ralph Harbison, a carpenter who serves in the Bayou La Batre volunteer fire department, who lived next door, helped in their rescue.
IT WAS A STRUGGLE: One newspaper, the New Orleans Times-Picayune became a headline story. About 240 employees and some members of their families, including one 6-month-old baby, huddled in darkened corridors of the newspaper building, about a mile from the Superdome. In a New York Times article, reporter Lisa Guernsey related that the paper, with a normal circulation of 270,000 daily, had to report its biggest story in its history with "no electricity, no phone access and no place to work." They improvised by utilizing its affiliated website, www.nola.com ... Other newspapers also struggled with the Mississippi Press of Pascagoula being helped out by the Mobile Register and the Columbia, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer looking after the Gulfport, Miss. Sun Herald.
YOU CERTAINLY CAN HELP: There are some phone numbers and websites where those in the North Okanagan can help Katrina victims: Check out the Red Cross office, 2809 44th Ave. in Vernon (1-800-448-1111) or on the Web at www.redcross.ca ... Then there's the Salvation Army, 3303 32nd Ave., Vernon (1-800-725-2769) ... www.salvationarmy.ca.
ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FRONT: With head coach Troy Mick staying at home with a cold, the Vernon Vipers went on to the road to Penticton Friday night and were leading 6-2 over the Vees when referee Sadd Al-Jadir called the contest with 14 minutes remaining as the BCHL exhibition contest turned into a donnybrook. On Saturday night, the two sides were much more subdued at the Multiplex with the Vipers claiming a 5-2 win over the Vees in the final exhibition test. The Vipers open their regular season schedule on Friday night against the Williams Lake Timberwolves.