In Washington

MS SUSI DuPuis, a 49-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia missed the bad news coming out of Wall Street last weekend. The 49-year-old legislative assistant at a giant oil company was focused on another twister, the real kind, wreaking destruction on the Gulf coast where her company has oil rigs. 

The rigs escaped the storm without damage. Her portfolio of investments, when she tuned into TV news on Monday and saw the panic waves emitting from the Wall Street, is largely intact too.  

"The first thing that came to my mind as I watched the news on TV was 'what about my retirement funds? Am I safe?'," Ms DuPuis said.

Her financial planner, who happens to be a close friend, knew she'd be worried and called to let her know that her money was not in Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank which collapsed and filed for bankruptcy before receiving a takeover offer from Britain's Barclays Bank.

"Now that I know my money is okay I can afford to watch the events with interest, not panic. I can say I have no fear. As I see it, there are large firms caught up in difficulties arising from the shake-up in the mortgage market. And I count myself lucky that I am not in the housing market - I do not have a house to sell or buy."

Ms DuPuis, relieved on the personal front, is now worried about a friend who works for Merrill Lynch, another stricken financial services giant which agreed to be bought over by Bank of America.

"I hope he's doing okay and will escape the reorganisation after the merger," she said.

Ms DuPuis, married to a military officer and the mother of three grown up children, thinks her goal of being able to retire at 62 can still be met. She is, as she admits, luckier than most. 

A new survey shows one in five Americans is feeling the stress from the Wall Street turbulence and expects to put off retirement. Apart from investments and retirement funds, many worry about paying more for car and housing loans and higher credit card payments.

For the moment, in newspaper columns, radio and TV shows, the experts have simple but sober advice - just sit out the rocky ride. 

The consumer and the worker are relatively unscathed despite the mounting job losses and inflation - these are high but not on the scale witnessed in the previous downturns.