It simply breaks the heart to see the images coming from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states. Hurricane Katrina leveled cities, left New Orleans under water, took an untold number of lives and will leave that part of the country forever changed.

More than a hundred people are known to have died in what could end up being the worst natural disaster in our nation. The New Orleans mayor added to the sense of dread Wednesday when he estimated the death toll in his flooded city was "most likely, thousands." A total evacuation has been ordered for the Big Easy, and its residents will not return to pick up the pieces for months.

Though Katrina had diminished from the deadliest hurricane rating to a slightly less dangerous Category 4 by the time it slammed into Gulf Coast states, it packed a particularly mean punch. At times we are tempted to forget about the immense power of nature and that its incredible force sometimes can swallow what has been built by man. Katrina has taught us, once again, that nature can be brutal and unforgiving.

In terms of damage, early estimates are in the range of $25 billion. That's likely to prove a low number, and even that doesn't include the more sweeping damage to a nation that is seeing already painfully high gasoline prices soar out of control.

The Gulf Coast region, rich in oil refineries, is key to this nation's oil and gas supply. President Bush has responded by releasing oil from this nation's emergency stockpiles, and the EPA, which moved Tuesday to temporarily allow the sale of higher-polluting gasoline in hurricane-ravaged states, made the waiver nationwide on Wednesday. Other Americans can help by conserving gasoline, and the shocking prices at the pump surely will help encourage such conservation.

Gulf Coast states, particularly Mississippi and Louisiana, are experiencing what one of our sister newspapers, the Hattiesburg American, called "a catastrophe that is unprecedented in reach and scope." To that end, Americans are needed to do what they always do when confronted with the suffering of others -- show they care with their prayers, their actions and their dollars.