To get some notion of how deeply scholars have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, one might look to someone like Dr. Erma Lawson, a medical sociologist from the University of North Texas. Lawson, who has coordinated the assistance efforts for the Association of Black Sociologists, has not hesitated to call on colleagues, graduate students, civil rights organizations, churches and local public officials to respond to the plight of the people displaced by floodwaters. There is no doubt that humanitarian concern has motivated scholars like Lawson. Katrina's Category 4 winds appear to have blown academics out of their comfortable ivory towers and into the public fray. The hurricane has even influenced the way scholars do research. The storm has also encouraged academics--who are often content to talk mainly among themselves--to attempt to shape public and government responses to the monumental race and poverty issues exposed by the hurricane. Now focused on evacuees, scholars urge multifaceted response to their plight.