At 05:15 PM 8/31/2005, Al typed:
We've been aware of New Orleans' inevitable horror for decades, and
absolutely nothing sufficient was done about it. The levees, now broken
and filling the city, were supposedly designed to protect against a
Category Three hurricane, yet Katrina was only a Two when it hit. It's
a major port, crucial to the nation. Shouldn't everything have been
better and higher?
It was a 2 when it crossed Fla but it was a 5 Sunday nite & a 4 when it
made landfall Monday morning as my wife & I watched it on CNN. CNN had
reported that the eye of the storm was just past NO when the levee started
to break apart. NO was thinking that they were spared since the storm track
was East of the City. Can you imagine what it would've been like if the
storm had stayed to the west.
FWIW a classmate of my wife was contacted Monday morning here in North
Central Ohio by the Red Cross to go to NO & MS & he was en route Monday
afternoon. FEMA people can't even pick up the dead bodies because there
aren't enough morgues yet. This recovery stuff can not happen over night.
There are many good people trying to help.
Why should the Federal government be responsible for where local
governments say that it's ok to build? In 1960 I saw houses floating out to
sea that were swept off it's peers. The Feds had almost no environmental
housing building codes back then like they do now so to say they're doing
nothing is false. Most of the buildings in the French Quarter & etc have
been there for over a century. I went to an elementary school in NO & was
terrified when I was told that the city was below sea level. I wonder if it
wouldn't be cheaper & faster & safer for everyone to just evacuate the city
totally & permanently.
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Wayne D. Johnson
Ashland, OH, USA 44805
<http://www.wavijo.com>
