Have Mercy, Katrina

As Hurricane Katrina bears down on the Crescent City, my thoughts are with the people of New Orleans as they brace for potential disaster. My brother, who lives there and rarely heeds evacuation warnings, is heading to Texas to ride out the storm, but I'm still extremely distressed. In my humble opinion, New Orleans is one of the greatest cities in the world, and I'm hoping the storm will have some mercy.

In honor of New Orleans and in hoping for the best, I'll be mixing up a batch of hurricanes this evening from a recipe I found on gumbopages.com:

1.5 ounces light rum
1.5 ounces dark rum
1 ounce orange juice
1 ounce fresh lime juice (NOT Rose's or RealLime)
1/4 cup passion fruit juice, or 1 tablespoon passion fruit syrup
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1 teaspoon grenadine
Cherries with stems, and orange slice to garnish
Ice cubes
In a cocktail shaker, mix the rum, passion fruit juice or syrup, the other juices and the sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add the grenadine, and stir to combine, then add ice and shake. Half-fill a hurricane glass with ice, then strain drink into glass; add ice to fill. Garnish with orange slice and cherries.