Unless there is a miracle, a disaster slow-approaching yet inexorable will wreak havoc on a scale not seen in the United States for decades. People alive today will be dead soon, and New Orleans as we have known it will no longer exist by Tuesday.
All we can do is hope and pray.
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Jack,
People have no idea. They simply have no clue.
When Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969) came through before, there were many, many deaths due to the storm surge, flooding, falling trees, and other storm-related accidents; however, I have read the accounts and seen the pictures and other footage of bodies floating in rivers and streams.
In addition to the weather-related casualties, what you don’t hear about are the deaths from snakebites. As odd as it sounds, there were hundreds of deaths due to snakes because the freshwater snakes seek high ground, just as humans do, to escape the salt water. In contests between humans and snakes over small pieces of dry ground, the snakes win.
That is just one example of the dangers which people face *after the fact* of the storm.
I’ve lived through my fair share of hurricanes, but I don’t think we have seen such a disaster of these proportions in my memory.
I fear for my fellow Louisianians.
[...] UPDATE II: Sigh. [...]
This has been predicted for years and of course like other things we would rather not believe the predictions were ignored. It was never a matter of “if” but “when” and “when” it appears may be on Monday.
Hyperbole? No!! Could they be wrong, yes! and I truly hope they are. We will all know in 24 hours or less. Except perhaps for those who thought it was all “hyperbole” and stayed. I jsut heard an interview with a guy on Burbon Street who thought it was hypebole. When asked why he was staying he said the dikes are good for a category 3 hurricane. When he was told katrina was a 5 he said. OH! it will weaken before it hits. That’s not what any of the weather scientists are saying.
[...] I do understand and appreciate the points made by those for whom there are fundamental principles at stake, principles of competence, qualifications, the problem of at least the appearance of cronyism (if not the actual fact, which is difficult to dispute at this point), along with the odd arguments coming from the White House attempting to justify a nomination that upon the face of it is an exemplar of exactly the problems that critics of the administration have been pointing to as the fundamental causes of the problems with the aftermath of the “catastrophic success” in Iraq, with the handling of what is frighteningly termed “homeland security”, and with the apparent indifference of the President in remaining on vacation when what was universally recognized as a major storm executed a slow-motion horror as it approached New Orleans and wreaked havoc that was documented for days afterward live on national and international television. [...]