Hurricane Katrina
Yeah yeah, everyone is sayin' something about Katrina.
I have to say the news coverage doesn't quite capture the enormity of the situation. I don't think people can quite comprehend what's happened, either.
A few years ago, my brother-in-law and his family got stuck in a flood in Palo Alto. Their rental house was at the end of the cul-de-sac, in a neighborhood built on the flood plane of the SF Bay. The tide came in during a huge rain storm--and the bay did what it is supposed to do. Within hours, their neighborhood was under 4 feet of water. We picked up my brother-in-law, with his terrified cat tucked in his jacket. Amazing how that cat knew trouble.
In any case, several hours later, we waded in, belt-deep water, to the house to try and find any important keepsakes. Bizarre to see boxes of photos and games floating around like some sort of bizarre party.
After the waters receded, we tried to help him clean up. It was amazing-everything was covered in a silty film of dirt and who knows what kind of oils and other suspended particles. It took hours of scrubbing and rinsing to get even the dishes clean. The house needed to have the drywall removed from the first 4 feet and completely replaced. Their two cars were totalled.
In New Orleans/Mississippi/Alabama-many houses are NOT EVEN THERE. It's just debris like you'd see at the dump. The idiocy of the design of the city of New Orleans is simply stunning. Incredible that after the hurricane is when the trouble REALLY started. Most of the city is under as much as 20 feet of water--and it smells like decay. Ironically, Bourbon Street is "dry".
I don't think the web has done a great job in reporting this. There isn't a sense of the completeness of the disaster. It is more soundbites and pictures that don't seem to tell the whole story or the enormity.
Good old TIME magazine did an excellent recap this week. They capture the photos and the emotion and the STORY. However, though this content would tranfer well to the web, they make you pay to see it. In cases like this, they should make it free.
Here, though, are some pictures from the magazine, that do show the story.
I have to say the news coverage doesn't quite capture the enormity of the situation. I don't think people can quite comprehend what's happened, either.
A few years ago, my brother-in-law and his family got stuck in a flood in Palo Alto. Their rental house was at the end of the cul-de-sac, in a neighborhood built on the flood plane of the SF Bay. The tide came in during a huge rain storm--and the bay did what it is supposed to do. Within hours, their neighborhood was under 4 feet of water. We picked up my brother-in-law, with his terrified cat tucked in his jacket. Amazing how that cat knew trouble.
In any case, several hours later, we waded in, belt-deep water, to the house to try and find any important keepsakes. Bizarre to see boxes of photos and games floating around like some sort of bizarre party.
After the waters receded, we tried to help him clean up. It was amazing-everything was covered in a silty film of dirt and who knows what kind of oils and other suspended particles. It took hours of scrubbing and rinsing to get even the dishes clean. The house needed to have the drywall removed from the first 4 feet and completely replaced. Their two cars were totalled.
In New Orleans/Mississippi/Alabama-many houses are NOT EVEN THERE. It's just debris like you'd see at the dump. The idiocy of the design of the city of New Orleans is simply stunning. Incredible that after the hurricane is when the trouble REALLY started. Most of the city is under as much as 20 feet of water--and it smells like decay. Ironically, Bourbon Street is "dry".
I don't think the web has done a great job in reporting this. There isn't a sense of the completeness of the disaster. It is more soundbites and pictures that don't seem to tell the whole story or the enormity.
Good old TIME magazine did an excellent recap this week. They capture the photos and the emotion and the STORY. However, though this content would tranfer well to the web, they make you pay to see it. In cases like this, they should make it free.
Here, though, are some pictures from the magazine, that do show the story.
posted by Twain at
7:30 AM
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