Lonskils
09-01-2005, 07:33 PM
Be sure to read the bottom note after reading this article
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the
Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved
as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent
homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV
"storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing
surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in
this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the
city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a
million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained,
however--the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those
die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
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.
- National Geographic, October, 2004
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the
Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved
as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent
homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV
"storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing
surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in
this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the
city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a
million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained,
however--the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those
die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
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.
- National Geographic, October, 2004