CORROSION OF CONFORMITY have been forced by Hurricane Katrina to postpone their scheduled U.K. tour dates and European tour with MOTORHEAD. A New Orleans resident, C.O.C. lead vocalist/guitarist, Pepper Keenan, evacuated the city with his family, leaving behind his house and Magazine Street bar, Le Bon Temps Roulé. Keenan and his family are staying temporarily in Lake Charles, Louisiana and awaiting word on when they will be able to return home.

“It wouldn’t feel right standing on stage singing songs at a time like this,” Keenan says. “My priority right now is to get back home and help rebuild my city.”

Living two blocks from the Mississippi in the city’s Carrollton section, Keenan often walked along the levee and contemplated what would happen if the river overflowed. He found out last month. As the storm approached, Keenan boarded up his bar, his mother’s house and the house of his friend, jazz drummer, Johnny Vidakovich. By the time Keenan got back to his own home, the wind was howling. It was time to go. He grabbed a duffel bag of clothes, the Grammy medal C.O.C. earned when their song “Drowning in a Daydream” off Wiseblood was nominated for Best Metal Performance in 1997, and his old National resonator guitar before joining the exodus in his truck. He has visited the city briefly since the flood; while his house and bar are still standing, the bar was shot at and looted. Meanwhile, the area remains without power, sewer or running water.

“There are a lot of songs in this experience, that’s for damn sure,” Keenan says.

C.O.C. plan to tour again in support of In The Arms Of God, this time opening for DISTURBED this November.