The news out of New Orleans remains simply staggering, beyond comprehension unless one (so to speak) immerses oneself in the news.
I’ve heard some comparisons between the ongoing disaster there and 9/11. The differences are easy to pick out, but to me the greater similarity is with a “worse case” scenario: the detonation of a dirty bomb or major biowarfare weapon in a major metropolis.
The fact is, despite those sorts of scenarios having been discussed for years, especially since 2001, we (both the citizenry and the government) have not been prepared for the evacuation of a major metropolitan area. How do you get everyone out? What do you do with them once you have? What about the folks left behind? And what about the secondary effects of closing a major transport hub, let alone the other industries in the area? If nothing else, what are the effects on an economy grunting under $2.50/gal. gas suddenly faced with prices in the $3-4 range or higher?
I have no idea what’s going to happen to NOLA. I’ve heard folks suggest it will have to be abandoned, that it’s the Pompeii of the US. That seems unthinkable, but it is going to require tremendous efforts to recover, whatever that recovery looks like, as the days lead to weeks lead to months. Indeed the greatest challenges, to the spirit, are not happening now, but will be happening in the weeks and months and years to come, as we pass out of crisis “all hands on deck” mode and into living with what comes after.
And as I look at the disruption to the populace and the economy from this one “incident” — were I a terrorist, or military planner, I’d be taking a lot of notes.
***Dave, $4 gas might well become one of those prices we all look at nostalgically. The Oil Drum says 20 oil rigs are flat out missing in the gulf. The tally of damaged ones hasn’t been finished and here’s the kicker: the parts they need to fix them are sitting under water in New Orleans.
Here, let me repeat that: The parts to fix the damaged rigss still standing are sitting under water in New Orleans.
The economic fallout is global. http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/8/31/55553/3220
More (similar) analysis here.
I think most people (myself included) have no idea of what sort of impact this is going to have. We look on it as a “flood” — tragic, painful, but, ultimately, back to business as usual.
That “ultimately” may be a loooong time in coming.
Should we (the US taxpayers) rebuild New Orleans twenty feet below sea level, right next to the Gulf and the Mississippi, in the middle of Hurricane Central, when we can reliably expect more and bigger hurricanes over the next few decades as the seas continue to warm?
Not with public money.
And, hell, how many people will want to invest in homes and businesses twenty feet bsl after this entirely predictable disaster?
Dig up Bourbon Street and move it somewhere higher up.
But they probably will and we’ll get stuck with the bill. Hopefully they’ll at least put in Category Five levees instead of the pathetic Category Threes that washed out.