| I'm with you about the insanity of the location, but it HAS been a city for a couple hundred years. Somewhere in the not too distant past it grew from a small seaport to a city of over a half mil. One look at a weather map showed that Katrina was going to be pushed north. Although initial landfall predictions ranged from the Florida panhandle to 200 miles west of NO, NO WAS right in the middle of the projected path. Believe it or not this was NOT the worst case scenario. Right after it passed over the keys I was telling Liz that there's no telling how much it would strengthen in the warm waters of the gulf because it was moving so slowly and, if there was a direct hit on NO during high tide, the city would be wiped off the map with NO survivors. Other cities might be destroyed, but NO, because of it's elevation would become part of the gulf. We here in middle GA are currently hosting a few hundred storm refugees. Most arrived with three days worth of clothes, as they expected to go home after the storm passed. The locals have been pretty good about giving them clothing and cash, and the motels are giving them discount rates. Dozens of local businesses are taking donations (Food, water, clothing, and cash) and caravans are leaving the city daily for the stricken areas. As far as people griping about the cost of an evacuation if it was a false alarm - I don't think it would happen. Anyone that lives along shore from the Carolinas all the way around to Texas knows that hurricanes are killers and would gladly pay for the ounce of prevention. After this storm, I doubt that you'll hear many complaints from the rest of the country either. I fear that the death toll will easily surpass 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined. |
