TV host Oprah Winfrey decided to cut her short summer vacation to visit the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Winfrey, 51, asked her celebrities friends, like Julia Roberts and Jamie Foxx to help her in the mission to bring hope to the desperate people hit by Katrina.

"I was sitting at home feeling frustrated and useless, like so many other people, so I came down to personally assess how I could best be of service," Ms. Winfrey said yesterday in a statement relayed by a spokeswoman.

Oprah visited yesterday the Huston's Astrodome, from where she broadcast her show. Winfrey declared during the show that she was shocked by the tragic situation she found in New Orleans and apologized in the name of American people to those who died on the streets and to the survivors that were so mistreated by the Government officials.

"Nothing I saw on television prepared me for what I experienced on the ground," she said "This makes me so mad. This should not have happened."

"I think we all - this country owes these people an apology," added Oprah after she heard the terrible stories of people dying unattended in the streets.