National Gepgraphic nails it

[cjolley]

A YEAR ago!

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/index.html

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

[Helevitia]

Wow, that's creepy!

[Dr Mordrid]

Not really that much clairvoyance involved there if you've ever been to New Orleans.

I loved that city, but as soon as you approach Metairie (a NO suburb) on the causeway over Lake Pontchartrain it becomes all to obvious that the big easy is in peril day and night.

Dr. Mordrid

[cjolley]

Not really that much clairvoyance involved there if you've ever been to New Orleans.

Amazingly...

Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist

However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans

Sunday, September 4, 2005; Posted: 11:55 a.m. EDT (15:55 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.

But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.

Chertoff, fielding questions from reporters, said government officials did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees that would flood the city of New Orleans. (See the video on a local paper's prophetic warning -- 3:30 )

"That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight," Chertoff said.

He called the disaster "breathtaking in its surprise."

[KvHagedorn]

I've had zero respect for Chertoff from the moment I saw his first press conference on this. He has no respect for the intelligence of anyone listening if he thinks he can say these things publicly. It's almost as bad as Clinton saying he'd "never had sex with that woman." This sleazebag is just attempting to absolve himself of responsibility here, and in a rather hamfisted way.

Say what you like about Nixon, but he had the regular army on site within two days after Camille hit. If GWB was the kind of take-charge guy we'd like to think of him as, he would have done the same. The only people who could bring order here (finally) was the army. The president has the authority to do anything he wants, especially in this case. To do nothing when one has his power is shoddy leadership, IMHO.