Some opportunists help themselves in New Orleans
DOTD inspecting I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain
Governor says entire city needs to be evacuated
As I rambled hither and yon across southeast Texas yesterday, I found myself glued to the radio, listening for news from Louisiana and Mississippi. What I heard left me bereft of the words necessary to describe my feelings. When I got home and watched the news, the pictures I saw reminded of pictures of Dresden in 1945 after the Allied fire bombings. There is simply no way to adequately describe the devastation- not only in New Orleans, but also in Mississippi and parts of Alabama as well. The death toll is anyone’s guess right now. Reporters are tossing around numbers that are quite frankly meaningless, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.
New Orleans is for all intents and purposes almost totally lawless. What could the police possibly do? People are hungry and increasingly desperate, and law enforcement personnel quite frankly have bigger fish to fry. Yes, looting is a crime, but criminal behavior is quite likely pretty low on the priority list. You’ve got a city underwater, with ruptured levees and rising water- not to mention bodies in the streets. Yeah, I’d say survival is pretty much Job One for everyone. Hell can’t be much different than New Orleans right now.
I’d ask the question that has been nagging at me for the past few days (Why would anyone build a city on the Gulf Coast below sea level??), but it’s a little late to be looking for answers at this point. What strikes me more than anything else is that, but for about 400 miles, we would be talking about the Texas Gulf Coast. It’s hard not to feel blessed and incredibly fortunate.
In about three weeks, I’m going to be driving to Williamsburg, VA to visit Eric at Parents Weekend at the College of Willima & Mary. I had been planning to drive through New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola. Well…not so much anymore, I guess. With the I-10 bridge over Lake Ponchartrain being washed out, it sounds as if there will be no travelling through New Orleans and surrounding environs any time soon. I likely am going to have to head north through Shreveport, LA, and into Tennessee. I’m not so sure that anyone with half a brain would want to get anywhere near New Orleans for quite some time.
This story is just beginning, and we’re barely into Chapter One. This is not going to be a story with many happy endings. Perhaps once the bodies are buried, the levees are patched, and the bridges repaired…perhaps then things will begin to look up. The misery in the short promises only to increase.
There but for the grace of [insert name of preferred Deity here] go all of us here along Galveston Bay.
Nothing going East-West south of I-20 is currently passable, and I wouldn't trust any of the bridges because of the number that were struck by barges, boats and other debris swept North with the storm surge.
We have supplies over here on the Panhandle, but are having problems figuring how to get them to Mississippi without heavy lift helicopters.
To answer your nagging question:
Originally, New Orleans was above sea level. But the soil underneath the city is mud and silt, and over the years it has subsided due to the weight of the buildings and the pumping out of the water.
Northstar,
Lots of Houston is below sea level; as for the rest, um, does the name Allison ring any bells?
New Orleans wasn't built in a BSL state originally; it was built in the subsidence zone of the Mississippi River. (Same thing's happening in Waco, which is in the Brazos' subsidence zone.)
But like anything people do, instead of fixing little stuff while it was still little stuff, New Orleans' subsidence problem was left on the 'let it eat' shelf ... and then the war in Iraq came along, and demonstrably, resources badly needed here at home are instead over there.
Heavy-lift helicopters. National Guard troops and high-water vehicles, rescue teams and disaster response operational experience.
At least you don't live in a town expending city funds to try to get the George W Bush Presidential Library.
(If I could fix this before it becomes a big screwed-up-ness, believe me, I would!)
Please, whatever you can give: make a donation to Mercy Corps, the Red Cross or the Humane Association.
Dittos Susan
Cough it up for the Crescent City ya'll!
Mercy Corps
American Red Cross
Humane Association