If this hurricane had struck a white, middle-class neighborhood in the Northeast or the Southwest, his (President George W. Bush's) response would have been a lot stronger.

I was setting in class and got a text message. I wanted to jump up and scream, but realized I probably should keep my emotions inside of me.

I'm painfully middle class.

Even a Category 2 or a Category 1 hurricane hitting the Florida Keys or the southwest coast of Florida can have big consequences there.

When runaway inflation and bank failures struck in Germany in the 1920s, the middle class was destroyed, which led directly to the rise of the Nazis.

If the hurricane comes across the forecast path, it's going to hit a lot of the citrus industry in southwest Florida. It's going to ruin their crop for this year, which will totally change the forecast for orange juice, ... The vegetable growers are going to have an awful lot in the ground that would be picked this year and could be destroyed.