This has made clear in a particularly vivid way that your life chances, not only in ordinary times but in times of disaster, vary a lot with the kind of resources your community has.

A lot of Republicans use this group of people in a kind of euphoria that they've found this untapped political base. But the lesson is that this is a group of people who are, by tradition, more skeptical, less likely to participate and hard to hold together for the long run.

We just wanted to get involved. A couple of us here at the station have put forth the effort and the time to do this.

There is an informal network of people helping each out in poor communities. They have great survival skills. The difference is that, in a poor community, that disaster wipes out that informal safety net.

Bush, Congress, the mayor ? each of them are symptoms of a bigger problem, that we don't have accountability for disasters or challenges of this scale, ... That's all the public wants in trying times ? accountability.