I lasted all of an hour and a half at work before I had a major panic attack in the middle of the store. I managed to find out a bit of info about a few people that work at the 4 Barnes & Noble stores in the damage zone. I managed to get one of the employees of the Metairie store (where I worked for five years until six months ago) on the phone and we were both in tears before we got off the phone. That store has around 80 employees, about 3/4th of which I know very well. And I only know for sure that three of them are safe. We're terribly worried about the mother of one of our co-workers who remained in Lakeview during the storm.

I hope other major corporate employers follow the lead of B&N, who are evidently going to take very good care of their employees during this crisis. I was completely awed by the amount of financial support they're willing to provide.