And it's different than the tsunami in Asia, where the disaster was half a world away. This time it's so close to home. It's affecting a place that many of us have visited and are familiar with. Some of us know people who live there or have relatives in the region. It's much harder to separate ourselves from this.

Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world

Hurricane Katrina has been a terrible natural disaster. Many of our employees and customers in the region have lost their homes and many of their possessions. Very few have escaped from the storm unscathed. We are determined to do everything that we can do as a company to help the region rebuild and help our employees return to their normal lives as quickly as possible.

We have just had a massive disaster, ... This is not a time to be cutting services to the most needy among us.

We all are touched by the disaster that went over the southern part of the U.S. This time it's not war, it's not terrorism, it's nature. I do hope … it will bring the peoples of all these counties more together,

This is the most expensive, worst and most complicated disaster that we've had to deal with for a long time.