STEWART When Tony Stewart's home folks were hurting last week, he was there to help. When Stewart returned to Columbus, Ind., after racing at Pocono Raceway, he found much of his hometown under water.

His first response on Monday was to visit the city's public works department

to thank the workers who had been on overtime duty to stabilize the city's utilities and other public facilities. Then he went to his old junior high school, which had been converted into a shelter for those evacuated because of the high waters.

Stewart said he felt like his efforts were worth it.

"I went in there to try to lift everybody's spirits up and just visit with everybody," he said.

"Everybody is doing a really good job. They had 500 people in that shelter on Saturday night, and they were down to 35 people by Monday afternoon.

"It's just hard. A lot of these people have lost everything, and I just wanted to let them know we were thinking about them. Just spending a couple of minutes with them made them smile, and it seemed like it made them feel better."

Stewart said his own property is OK.

"My old house by the high school is good," he said. "The farm is just wet, absolutely saturated. You can't get on it. You can't do anything.

"And we're getting baby deer now.We have four little ones, and we've got them on the deck in a small pen because you can't get on the ground to put them anywhere. They're so young, you don't want them to get stuck."

He said the flooding has put life in better perspective.

"You realize that even on your worst day, you still have it pretty darn good," he said. "There are people who are sad because they've lost their homes. That's the hard part. You want to do something, but it's so widespread, you don't know what to do. I'm going to donate my portion of the race winnings from Michigan to the American Red Cross. I figure that's at least a start."

Stewart finished fifth on Sunday.

To join Stewart in helping those affected by the floods in Indiana call 812-379-9551 or send checks payable to The American Red Cross, 931 Repp Drive, Columbus, IN 47201.