While Josh Hayes was at VIR over the past weekend, he took comfort in the fact that he just inked a contract with Erion Honda for 2006. Meanwhile, back home in Mississippi, a woman by the name of Katrina was about to make a very uninvited visit.

The good: Hayes has a contract to return to the Erion Honda team for 2006 where the likable 30-year old will race Superstock and Formula X. With the Honda factory pulling out of FX in '06 Hayes will likely be heading Big Red's assault in that class.

The bad: "My house is gone, all gone" Hayes said yesterday afternoon. The longtime Biloxi, MS resident monitored his mobile phone yesterday for news from home. Hurricane Katrina threw devastating force at the Gulf Coast yesterday, destroying homes and killing at least sixty people. Hayes said that he was in contact with his manager Gina Nadau and his family in Mississippi and the sporadic news he was getting from the scene wasn't good.

"My truck is under water," Hayes said. "Gina's house, she lives five or six yards off the water, her basement is filled with water as is the first floor, and six-foot waves are crashing into it. Nobody can even get to my house. Many of my relatives are stranded on the top floor of their homes watching the hurricane tear the shingles off. Some of the houses are under 22-24 feet of water."