More Katrina

"Dan Luke" wrote:
Holy ****.

This is far worse than we were being told even this morning. Whole
sections of Biloxi are leveled. Multi-story casinos have been driven
all the way across Hwy 90 and into neighborhoods. It looks like the
city has been carpet bombed.

Hancock County, to the west of Biloxi, is expected to be *worse*! How
that could be possible, I do not know.


The damage is exactly what knowledgeable people would expect from a
strong cat 4 or marginal cat 5 hurricane hitting such an area.
Welcome to Hurricane Reality 101.

The lesson has been taught many times in the past but it is a lesson
conveniently forgotten by many. Indeed, sometimes the lesson is never
learned in the first place. I just saw an interview on TV with a
woman whose wood frame house was reduced to rubble by Katrina. She
remarked, "We made it through Camille so I thought we could make it
through this one". What she didn't realize, and what most people
don't realize, is that a mere 10 miles one way or the other in cat 4
or 5 hurricane can mean the difference between total destruction or
just a few tree limbs down. In truth, that lady didn't "make it
through Camille", she made it through the periphery of Camille. She,
like most, didn't understand the difference. It's a crap shoot, and
those who win the bet a few times and escape the eye wall often become
emboldened and mistakenly believe that they know what hurricanes are
all about. Yesterday, such ignorance killed hundreds of people.

The levee breach and the resulting flooding of New Orleans is a sad
testament to man's arrogance in trying to re-engineer nature. With
upwards of 50,000 people remaining in a city with no functional
plumbing, the flooded streets will soon be awash with sewage and other
contaminates. Potable water is scarce. Widespread disease and
pestilence could follow. Hundreds have died and thousands more may
die. There are more than 25,000 people in a Superdome with no
functional plumbing. They must be evacuated immediately. The water
level in the streets is rising as the basin pumps fail one by one.
The true scope of this disaster on a human scale is only beginning to
be played out. The official response so far has been underwhelming.
A much larger mobilization is needed.

Meanwhile, president Bush is at a Naval Air Station in Colorado making
a speech in which he compares his administration's politically
motivated hegemony in Iraq with WW2. "Once again we will not rest
until victory is America's and our freedom is secure." Any American
who buys in to such bull**** is a ****ing idiot.