National Geographic 10/04 article on La Bayou, Chillingly accurate to the tragedy

[Preds]

I remembered reading this article several months ago.... upon rereading it, I'm stunned by just how accurate the author's portrayel of a potential impending doom was... very sad.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/...geographic.com

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.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

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.

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.

"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are,"
Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."

The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given year are slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists predict that powerful storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risk. "It's not if it will happen," says University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when."

....

[Valencia]

I actually saw something about this kind of thing happening a couple of years ago. It was on some News Show like 20/20 or 60 Minutes. If I remember correctly they were discussing a big Hurricane that hit back in the 30's. They said that it was only a matter of time before another storm like that would hit again and they pretty much called exactly what happened. Very sad situation down their.
When this storm was building and starting to make its way north I had a feeling this was the one.

[Burt the Butcher]

What I want to know is, why is it taking do damn long for the government to get moving? From what I am seeing, hearing and reading, most of the relief is coming from either organizations like Red Cross, or communties like Houston stepping in. Freaking Bush is talking about hosting private fund raising dinners? Push through an emergency relief bill TODAY and implement it TODAY!! There are hundreds of thousands of able bodied people with nothing to do right now. Hire those willing to work and get started getting things done. I am sure there are a lot of wonderful people there that would jump at the chance to help put their cities back in order and get some badly needed income.


Sorry to rant.....

[Royal Hawaiian Opihi]

Great find, Mike... truly a tragedy... and Burt's right on the mark with the slow response. Heard a relief worker today on the radio saying that the response is equivalent to when we respond in 3rd world countries, where they have no government infrastructure to count on. Very sad!!

The United Methodist Church has a very active relief agency, and we've already got supplies down in the area... most UMC's will be taking special offerings for the next few weeks. We'll try to do our part, along with everyone else...