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Gone with the Water

From an article in the October 2004 issue of National Geographic magazine:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however?the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

Sound familiar? Read on:

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Fortunately the casualty rate doesn't seem to be this high for NOLA, but the rest sounds spot on.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't?yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

Pretty good for a year in advance. Imagine what would have happened if the Louisiana state government, and the City of New Orleans had made some realistic emergency plans based on this sort of projection.

Like it should have been their priority, since they're the ones directly on the scene - right? As it turned out, wrong!

Do we still remember? Was it the day that changed us forever? Here are some thoughts from Mark Steyn, and Todd Bevan. My favorite contemporary pieces were this one by John Derbyshire, and a Sept. 12, 2001 piece by...

I'm tremendously touched by the donations I've received so far for our local Sheriff's Relief Fund, a venture that aims to get a truckload of supplies delivered to Mississippi for distribution to local law enforcement/fire/EMT folks. (Click the link for...

YIKES! Blogposts Vanish into Ether!

Something horrible happened this afternoon resulting in the deletion of all of the Chief's postings from June through the current date/time.

Even more unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be retrievable - AND - this occurred with no backup for the time in question. (I know, always do regular backups - and I DO, at least for my working files - but I didn't think to do so for my blog. Oh well.

What's the old moonbat-ish cliche? Oh yeah, this is almost like the first day of the rest of the blog - and I'll have new posts up (generally) daily.

Kaus has it about right: Sure, the Bushies are using the federalism issue, and Louisiana's potentially bruised feelings, as an excuse--especially when they talk about how "it would have been perceived" if Bush had seized control of the relief effort...

I have been taking heat for the post that points out the lack of International aid to the US for the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Here is one email:In light of your unbelievably ignorant and ridiculous post US on...

[This post has been bumped to appear on the top of the page, all day today. Scroll down for new posts.] Time for a Hurricane Katrina blogburst. Instapundit wants a post recommending relief efforts to donate to, and here are...

The Argus Leader has a report on a huge expansion of the Sioux Fgalls Morrell meat packing plant:Local and state leaders on Friday lauded John Morrell Co.'s $100 million expansion plans and emphasized the plant's importance to the city and...

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