Reporter's Note: The president is extending condolences and support to all the towns hit by that string of tornadoes in the South. So am I.

Dear Mr. President,

Happy Saturday! You’ve had quite a busy week, and I must say that I did, too. It is nice to wake up to a relatively quiet day and know that I have a little recovery time before firing up the old grindstone again.

That said, I am mindful of how many people in the path of those awful storms woke up to just another day of hard work. That is one of the great challenges of catastrophes; there is just no break. You can’t call in sick, or take a vacation from digging out of rubble. You can’t tell your heart to quit aching. So my thoughts are certainly with them.

My brother, niece and nephew were up in Tuscaloosa helping with some cleanup this week. Some other family members are too, if I heard right. Not sure where they are now; I think back home in south Alabama. My nephew graduated from the University of Alabama, and my niece is still attending (as I told you, she was hunkered down in a house right next to the main path of destruction) so the whole thing has been rather personal for them.

And come to think of it, that’s another thing that makes such calamities hard to bear. Even though such storms are mindless, know no address, and run simply because they can, what they take from people is utterly wrapped in emotions, thoughts, and memories.
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