With so much focus on New Orleans, the important thing to remember is the dire straits in Mississippi, ... We wanted to show how much help we need and how people can help.

You're in a situation where you're stuck, because no government wants to go out there and say, 'we're in dire fiscal straits, we've got to increase taxes',

I just love the idea that you have a group of people and there's a dire need to have them on your side to communicate for the evening.

The leading indicators are telling us that we have got a slowdown because of the disruption from the hurricanes, but it is not as dire as the September drop would suggest.

It's so dire up there, our people are supposed to take their own blankets, flashlights, food and water, anything they need to live on.

Before the hurricane, it would have been one big Mardi Gras-type party this weekend. But it wasn't appropriate to have that when there's people with dire needs and emergencies.

The situation is about as dire as dire can be.

We were in dire need of something like that, and it was an exciting thing for us. But as time went on, it just seemed like there was something there we were not getting full disclosure on.

We're not in as dire a situation as Orange or Seminole counties. We learned from last year's hurricanes to have as much fuel on hand as possible.

I would say that on or around Nov. 15 you would be hearing a revised revenue estimate and that midterm fiscal report would say we were in dire straits and that we were in immediate need of a tax increase.