Disaster and Discontinuity

Hurricane Katrina tore through the southeastern United States just a few days ago, pouring out most of her fury on southern Mississippi and Louisiana. The destruction she left in her wake was unbelievable, but most of the nation's focus has been on the city of New Orleans which has been flooded and left practically unliveable. The city was built below sea level and when Katrina came through, the water overflowed the levies into the city where it is now trapped until power can be brought back to operate the pumps. According to the news filth, looting, raping, and just general rampage, lawlessness, and chaos have taken hold of the city. This article reads like something one would read in a book or see in a movie with the anarchy and riotousness, not like something that happens in modern America.

The politicians in New Orleans have a lot of difficult decisions to make. A big one is the issue of rebuilding the city. Everything is so complicated. There are millions of people who will be affected in big ways by their decisions, not just the more than half a million who lived in the city. There is a large economic impact. One thing I heard mentioned multiple times today was, "But what about Mardi Gras!!!!" One of the biggest parties in the United States may have to be put on hold. Big bummer. There are a lot more important things to consider than Fat Tuesday.

It is scary how devastating the whole situation is. In the article I mentioned earlier it said that

On Wednesday, Mayor Ray Nagin offered the most startling estimate yet of the magnitude of the disaster: Asked how many people died in New Orleans, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands." The death toll has already reached at least 126 in Mississippi.

If the estimate proves correct, it would make Katrina the worst natural disaster in the United States since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which was blamed for anywhere from about 500 to 6,000 deaths. Katrina would also be the nation's deadliest hurricane since 1900, when a storm in Galveston, Texas, killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people.

Wow. I thought it was bad when Katrina went through Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on her way to the Gulf of Mexico and killed 7 to 11 people, depending on which news source you read. To see the pictures of the hurricane's aftermath is amazing. The before and after satellite pictures of New Orleans are incredible.

Even with all of the coverage by the media, it still all seems unreal somehow. Sitting here typing with the windows open, a gentle breeze blowing, and just prevailing calm, the problems of New Orleans seem like something far away in some other country, not here so close to home. The most it impacts my life right now is the severe increase in the price of gas, the coverage on the news, the fact that I am going to donate extra money, and New Orleans being one of the only topics of conversation all day. It seems so unreal, disconnected, and hard to imagine. I felt a similar way after the 9/11 attacks, although perhaps a little more scared. I have seen so many action movies that the images on TV just don't seem quite real--like they could all be done with special effects on a movie set. Even though I know it is all real, it is so horrific I do not want it to be real and I keep on expecting the credits to start rolling or for myself to wake up out of a bad dream. Just a little discontinuity between myself and our national disaster.