My thoughts go out to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It’s hard to grasp the enormity of this storm’s effect.

I’m disheartened by the news that the effort to try to patch the levees didn’t materialize when expected. Amid all the footage on CNN, I didn’t see any shots of helicopters dropping the 3,000-pound sandbags into place. Now we know why — the helicopters were apparently diverted for search and rescue.

I hope they can get those levees patched and staunch the horrendous flooding affecting the Crescent City.