BEIJING, Sept. 24 - Three years after becoming China's top leader, Hu Jintao has solidified his grip on power and intimidated critics inside and outside the Communist Party with the help of the man once seen as his most potent rival.

Mr. Hu, China's president and Communist Party chief, and Zeng Qinghong, vice president and the man in charge of the party's organizational affairs, have tackled the most delicate domestic and foreign policy issues as a team, governing as hard-liners with a deft political touch, former Chinese officials and scholars with leadership connections said.

Their bond is a surprise because Mr. Zeng was the longtime right-hand man of the previous No. 1 leader, Jiang Zemin. A skillful backroom political operator considered to have strong military ties, Mr. Zeng was long viewed as the only person capable of challenging Mr. Hu for power.

Dear Friends and Family:

The day before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the entire Sheffield Family was gathered in Biloxi for a family reunion and to honor brother Buddy who was named Biloxian of the Year. As the storm approached we all scrambled for high ground, and, we are very relieved to say, all the Sheffields escaped unharmed. Brother Richard's house in Ocean Springs was totally gutted. Neil [David's other brother] and Kay lost everything too.

We also lost Skipjack, the 48-foot Biloxi lugger that has been our family boat and like a second home to us for the past 14 years. She was up on Bill Holland's boat yard on the Back Bay of Biloxi being replanked. Swept away by a ferocious storm surge, Skipjack was completely destroyed. Nothing remains but fond memories and photographs.

We are in the process of putting together a web site to commemorate Skipjack. In the meantime, please find attached a picture of her in happier days, anchored near Big Woman Key, west of Key West.

We'd like to thank everyone for their calls and concern. Please give generously to the Red Cross if you haven't already. There are so many who have lost so much more.

Best,

David Sheffield and Cynthia Walker

An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

The beach house in the mid-50's, with Mom, Sylvia, Prince and me. Originally built in 1893 as a summer cottage, the house has been remodeled many times.

That's the old dude wondering when we're gonna eat.

Joseph and Michelle are watching and wondering the same thing.

My two "almost" sisters Diane and Marie are working on it.

Sylvia, Mom and the old dude.

My niece Reagan.

The view from the porch of old 509 Front Beach Drive.

Dad,

We got word from Rickie and Carol Davis. Sylvia and Reagan and I am assuming grandma are OK. They rode the storm out in Gulf Hills. We heard Reagan got to the beach house...not much left. We are here in Dallas waiting for word on when and if we can return. It looks like the Westbank [Algiers] was spared water. [It] looks like our condo [in New Orleans] has avoided water for now. We will keep you informed

Love, Joseph