Hurricane Katrina

I grew up in Louisiana, so for me hurricanes are not that much to get worked up over, but now that we live so far from my bother and "his girls", Christie (wife), Rita, Stephanie, Victoria and Tami (daughters), I get a little worried during the storm season.
My brother is a medic and during these times he is often called to work, leaving the girls to take care of themselves. Now I am all for "girl power" but I still worry.
I talked to my brother yesterday, and as expected, he was called into work. The girls are at the age where they know the severity of something like this so I know they must be at least a little scared. Yesterday was also Victoria's 12th birthday and she joked about having a "hurricane" party.
I was sure they would be safe, because otherwise my brother would have sent them here, where we are at the extreme west part of Louisana, but on the news it looks really bad.
Now we just sit back and play the "have you heard?" game, where we call other family members asking if they have heard anything.
My mom and step-father are returning from a trip out of the country and since they are landing in Houston, I am worried that the storm could delay their flight for a while.
We went through this a lot as children growing north of New Orleans, but I guess becasue we didn't have a television, we really didn't know how bad it was.
I guess there is nothing we can do now, except sit and wait.