Name = Olape Bunmi
Place_of_Residence = Nigeria
Email = bunmiolape@hotmail.com
Message = I believe you, your family members and the entire Louisiana,Mississipi and Alabama chess family will survive the storm and you will have good story to tell with regards to your survival instinct on chess board so brother summon courage and mate hurricane Katrina!!

Name = Lesley-ann Nelson
Place_of_Residence = Trinidad
Email = lescarmn32@yahoo.com
Message = To the Rene Phillips and family I feel your pain, but do remember there is a God above who cares for all his children, make him your strong hold and the protector of your family. I will lift you and all families on this day before God that he give you the strength and protection you all need. God bless.

Name = Ian Wilkinson
Place_of_Residence = Jamaica
Email = zeusmgh@yahoo.com
Message = Rene, my brother, we in Jamaica (especially the members of the Jamaica Chess Federation) share your pain and sorrow, empathize and sympathize wholeheartedly. You have a number of great things in your favour--- including the crucial fact that you are a chess player. On the chess battlefield sometimes we suffer adversity (eg the loss of a piece) but we can still recover to win. I am by no means trivialising your situation (God forbid!!) but would like you to consider your tragedy as a temporary setback. You will recover to deliver checkmate! Though it will not be easy material things can be replaced. As we say in Jamaica "old bring new!". What is important is that you are alive. I sincerely hope that your family members, friends students and fellow chess players are also alive. Finally, please never forget as the motto of my alma mater preaches "the brave may fall but never yield". Like the Phoenix you and yours will rise stroger and better than before!!!

Name = Bro. Cliff, KUUMBA Report Newsletter, Black Knights Chess Club, Baltimore, MD
Place_of_Residence = USA
Email = kuumba@verizon.net
Message = Greetings:

Ralph Mikell, Captain of the Black Knights Chess Club in Washington, DC, sent me the message about your predicament. I also know someone in New Orleans who is still there, caring for his 86-year-old father. I've been trying to find a way to get there (I'll need at least one other person to help drive from Baltimore to New Orleans). Our intention is to halp him as much as we can, take photographs and talk to people there about what is really happening (he also has said the media accounts are misleading).

I'm actually looking at this message about your situation for the second time. I've called Ralph Mikell and left a message for him to call me, hoping he may know more about your situation. Are you all right? Have things either stabilized or improved since the date of this Internet message? Where are you and your family at this time? What do you need right now?

Do you have friends, family or others who are currently helping you?

If you'd like to get in touch with me, I'll give you my e-mail address (in case it didn't show in the header for this message) and a phone number, in case you have access to a phone. They are:

e-mail: kuumba@verizon.net
cell phone: (443) XXX-XXXX

I hope things are getting better (or at least more tolerable) for you and your family. I hope to hear from you (or at least get an update about your situation) soon. I'm still trying to find a way to not only make the trip to New Orleans but also to gain access to the city to check on my friend there (I understand there has been a blockade of sorts in Jefferson Parrish, effectively preventing aid from getting in, and some aid convoys have been detained even before reaching Louisiana. One from Loudon, Virginia was intercepted by state troopers and sent back home, apparently because only military and police and rescue teams were being allowed in).

I hope to hear from you, or of you, soon.

Bro. Cliff (Alan Clifford)
Baltimore, Maryland
Black Knights Chess Club, DC Chess League

Name = John Porter
Place_of_Residence = africa by way of america
Email = mybusinessteam1@yahoo.com
Message = My prayers go out to you and your family at this time of grief and total shock, please keep the faith and stay strong my brother, this is the deepest thing I have ever observed, peace and blessings my brother true love to you and your family!

Name = Rodney Thomas
Place_of_Residence = USA
Email = rthomas4@us.ibm.com
Message = Hi Rene'! Glad to hear that you & the immediate familoy are OK. We met a few years ago, I grew up playing chess with Alfred, and now live in Dallas. My father tried to ride the storm out at his house in Pontchartrain Park, and he is now missing ... so I know first hand some of the emotions that you are dealing with. If you send me your email address, I will send you info that may be helpful.