gustav is on its way

We're staying up late watching the storm sweep across the Gulf, thinking of all the people in Louisiana who are probably experiencing a particularly painful brand of deja vu right now. It's surreal how quickly history repeats itself.

Mayor Nagin is calling this "the storm of the century," in defiance of anyone who thought that that particular storm had already passed, three years ago when 1,500 people died.

A friend of mine, newly arrived in New Orleans for a three-month stint with a political campaign, joined the evacuation today. She's fortunate. Nagin has also said that the city won't be able to provide emergency resources to anyone left behind.

Scary? Yes. But also thought-provoking. Over the past few months my husband and I experienced a string of thefts: my wallet was stolen, my identity was stolen, my car was broken into twice and then stolen. By the end of it, we were both starting to wonder whether God was trying to tell us something. And without wanting to in any way imply that storms are God's punishment or that they're deserved, there's a part of me that can't help but wonder: when one city is repeatedly hit by hurricanes, could God be trying to tell us something?

And if so, what?