What this storm has done has wrecked the lives and the economy of what could arguably be one of the poorest areas of America with one of the blackest populations. As I look around, whether it's Iowa or Arizona, at the far-flung places to which people are being sent, for the short term at least, I think it's going to be a national lesson in diversity.

We've evacuated most of a Deep South city, and we haven't the foggiest idea of what's going to happen six months from now.