Pastor's message, etc. etc. etc.
SAMPLE TEXT BELOW FROM LCMS WEBSITE.

LCMS World Relief and Human Care is taking initial action to respond to emergency needs following the impact of Hurricane Katrina on Monday, August 29.

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Monday with 100- to 145-MPH winds and sheets of rain. The worst fears of New Orleans residents were quelled when Katrina jogged eastward, slamming Meridian, Mississippi full-force instead. As search and rescue operations continue throughout the south, LCMS World Relief and Human Care is looking ahead to immediate and long-term response.

"I have been in touch with LCMS Southern District President Rev. Kurt Schultz," said LCMS World Relief and Human Care executive director Rev. Matthew Harrison today. "At least 70 of the district's 140 congregations have sustained damage of some kind. Rev. Schultz suspects that both the district office building and his own home may have been destroyed." The Southern District office is located near Lake Ponchartrain.

"In the coming days," said Harrison, LCMS World Relief and Human Care will be joining together with our strong partners to get people chain saws and other needed supplies." Currently, access to affected areas is limited due to flood waters that have not receded, as well as to downed power lines and leaking gas lines.

Mississippi governor Hayley Barbour describes "enourmous devastation" in Katrina's wake and reports that as many as 80 residents of Harrison County, Mississippi may have lost their lives in the storm. New flooding has also been reported in New Orleans as the result of levees collapsing on both the east and west sides of the city. Many neighborhoods have been completely inundated.

Storm stories are beginning to come in to the LCMS World Relief and Human Care office. Rev. Don Little of Atonement Lutheran Church and School in Metairie, in the western part of the New Orleans area, has cointacted us from his safe haven in Greenville, South Carolina.