Devastation

New Orleans Before Katrina

New Orleans After Katrina

above pictures from Digital Globe

In the wake of hurricane Katrina there are many thoughts an emotions flowing through my heart and mind. You take what's happening in New Orleans out of the equation and you have what will go down as the costliest natural disaster in the last 100 years. I fear that we will continue to find human remains for days to come once the most heavily damaged areas become more accessible to search and rescue personnel. Two days ago (Wednesday) I looked at the helicopter footage from a news chopper based out of Jackson,MS WLBT and it suddenly became clear that the scale of damage to Mississippi's coast was unlike anything seen previously. By the way, if you visit the TV station's web site linked above you'll want to view the "Skycopter on the coast: First tour" video. The state of Mississippi will spend years bandaging this wound. The Gulf coast has been a natural attraction and site of recreation for decades in this poverty stricken state. I can't help but think that the draw of casino gambling has caused the population to jump considerably in the last 15 years. When I was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida in the early 90s it was common to see billboards for the Biloxi and Gulfport based casinos even from that distance. With the pre-storm evacuations, so many lives were spared, but think of all the displaced people with nothing to come back to. All of the inland communities that have taken on increased populations of either totally dependent people or those whom have enough to last them a few days. I feel even the kindest souls and most far reaching charities will be challenged to sustain the needy. Many employment sources have virtually crumbled beneath the broken buildings littering the coast. And now, thanks to Katrina's Gulf of Mexico passage, those who have vehicles will struggle to afford a full tank. If anything, I think this will change our attitude toward living in hurricane prone areas and make us re-think how horrible hurricanes can be.
Then, there's New Orleans. It's hard to escape the imagery, especially in my line of work. What started as man vs. nature has evolved into man vs. man and has become a crisis rooted in survival of the fittest. A expected, the "blame game" is well underway and the "squeaky wheels" are being heard. As I watch the evolution of this disaster, I again feel the emotions and saddened worry I felt after 9/11. Of course, it wont be long now that we'll have to relive that terrible day courtesy of the cable news networks. And of course the people will bend over backward drawing comparisons between our most recent American disasters. It will be hard to be happy this month. When I look at the satellite imagery from New Orleans I can't believe what I'm seeing. Most of the city is seemingly underwater. Dirty, contaminated, polluted, water. I just don't know how this can be fixed anytime soon. There's no place for this water to go. The city streets actually lie below the normal surfaces of the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain to the north. So that water, full of chemicals, sewage and snakes is going to sit there for weeks ruining at least every home and the bottom floors of every building in the flooded area. As it stands now, there are at least 100,000 flooded structures. I can't help but think there are some residents still in those dwellings. It just breaks my heart.
I made a promise to myself that I would never state any political opinions here on this weather blog, but since this is not a Republican vs. Democrat situation and the circumstances are the result of weather, I'll take a few liberties here.
While Katrina was still well off shore, and I first heard that the Louisiana Superdome was going to be used as a shelter, I was deeply concerned. Considering the likelihood of this "worst case scenario" actually coming to pass my immediate thought was "bad idea". I know the powers-that-be made it clear that the Superdome was to be a "last resort" shelter, but the media made it sound as if it were the only shelter to local residents. When we give weather talks here in Texoma and the subject of tornado safety come up, we always tell people that buildings with large span roofs are not good shelters because the roofs commonly collapse. So my initial concern with the Superdome was that the structure may not be hurricane worthy. Not to mention, hurricanes commonly spawn tornadoes. Katrina spawned over 20 tornadoes from Georgia to Pennsylvania. After pondering what may happen during the storm, I then began to think about after the storm. It was predicted prior to landfall that the City of New Orleans will likely lose power and clean water service, levee breach or not. Now we have proof on every news station that this idea has backfired. Toilets overflow, no air conditioning, no clean water, babys using the same diaper for days, no electricity, drugs, violence and no way out. Granted, this was to be a last resort for evacuees that likely didn't have a way out of town. I think the better idea would have been to get these people on buses and get them out of the city. Now we have a big problem that resembles anarchy. I can't help but think it will get worse before it gets better. With all the petrol chemicals in the floodwaters downtown the fuel is there for devastating fires. I really think using the Superdome as shelter will go down as one of the poorest pre-disaster decisions of this entire tragedy. Were lives saved? I imagine so. But it is my feeling that if these people were transported to a place not so vunerable to flooding outside of the city, more lives would have been spared. My 2 cents. My heart bleeds for this city.
As the days go by, we will get a bigger picture of the scale of this disaster. Since its weather related, it really weighs heavy on my heart as I ask myself "will I be ready for this in my neighborhood?". Wichita Falls is no stranger to total devastation brought about by weather. I hope we as a community will do our best to help those victimized by this most recent American tragedy.