They saw it coming
Perhaps my most amazing discovery of the last few days, reading about Katrina, is the New Orleans Times-Picayune series from 2002 that warns in chillingly accurate detail about what could and did happen to its community.
Just reading the headlines tells you how much has been known for years:
IN HARM'S WAY: Levees, our best protection from flooding, may turn against us.
THE BIG ONE: A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time.
EVACUATION: It's the best chance for survival, but it's a bumpy road, and 100,000 will be left to face the fury.
TEMPTING FATE: As the country becomes more crowded, the damage from natural disasters skyrockets in at-risk areas such as Louisiana's coast.
SHIFTING TIDE: The Army Corps of Engineers has made Louisiana habitable . . . but it's also caused many of the problems.
COST OF SURVIVAL: New Orleans will continue sinking and hurricanes will continue threatening us. But efforts to rebuild the areas's natural coastal protections are showing promise.
I talked with an ecologist the other day who said she remembers talking 30 years ago about how vulnerable the Gulf Coast was. I keep wondering what they were thinking 300 years ago when they looked around at this area 7 feet below sea level and said to each other, "What a lovely place for a city."
"Washing Away," which was published over a five-day period, is a remarkable piece of mainstream journalism and an example of what the big guys can do when they marshall their resources. In an era of shrinking newsrooms and bottom-line decision-making, expect to see fewer and fewer efforts like this one.
Listening to all the finger-pointing and woulda-shoulda-coulda fury that's been leveled in all directions even as desperate people were fighting for their lives, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the series sat on a shelf for three years. Probably what happened is the people in New Orleans waited for the state and federal governments to come to the rescue, when they should have either moved out or gotten down to work shoring up the shoreline.
Just reading the headlines tells you how much has been known for years:
IN HARM'S WAY: Levees, our best protection from flooding, may turn against us.
THE BIG ONE: A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time.
EVACUATION: It's the best chance for survival, but it's a bumpy road, and 100,000 will be left to face the fury.
TEMPTING FATE: As the country becomes more crowded, the damage from natural disasters skyrockets in at-risk areas such as Louisiana's coast.
SHIFTING TIDE: The Army Corps of Engineers has made Louisiana habitable . . . but it's also caused many of the problems.
COST OF SURVIVAL: New Orleans will continue sinking and hurricanes will continue threatening us. But efforts to rebuild the areas's natural coastal protections are showing promise.
I talked with an ecologist the other day who said she remembers talking 30 years ago about how vulnerable the Gulf Coast was. I keep wondering what they were thinking 300 years ago when they looked around at this area 7 feet below sea level and said to each other, "What a lovely place for a city."
"Washing Away," which was published over a five-day period, is a remarkable piece of mainstream journalism and an example of what the big guys can do when they marshall their resources. In an era of shrinking newsrooms and bottom-line decision-making, expect to see fewer and fewer efforts like this one.
Listening to all the finger-pointing and woulda-shoulda-coulda fury that's been leveled in all directions even as desperate people were fighting for their lives, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the series sat on a shelf for three years. Probably what happened is the people in New Orleans waited for the state and federal governments to come to the rescue, when they should have either moved out or gotten down to work shoring up the shoreline.
posted by B.W. Richardson at
9:08 AM
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