Somehow a lot of the listers just have their priorities all out of
whack. I mean, I look here for info about BEER! But with all the idle
chatter about guns, dogs, email clients, and other random trivialities,
we are missing something extremely important.
*Seriously, y'all, there is another important topic to consider -- this
hurricane thing is significantly huge.* This event is unparallelled in
our US history. Here in Htown we got lots and lots of folks who left
home a few days ago, now there is no home left. There are 2 hotels
walking distance from the house, packed full of LA license plates. I
don't even know how they would get back if there was anywhere to go, as
the roads are gone. GONE. Blown away, washed away.
All of NOLA is a nasty toxic fetid swamp (not counting Bourbon Street, I
think it is actually cleaner now). A lot of the rest of region is not a
lot better, some even worse.
Tomorrow the Astrodome is going to be the staging point for evacuees who
are left there and being pulled out, including lots and lots of very
sick people coming from hospitals all over the devastated area (which is
HUGE). Many arriving will be very very sick, no medical records, no
meds, no money, no jobs, no insurance records, minimal care for the last
few days. The Texas Med Ctr is being mobilized to help. My wife will
be triaging patients who make it, trying to figure out how to keep them
alive and where to park them. I saw some flights of mil helos headed
east yesterday, not sure if that is the evac method or what, but the
roads are gone 'tween here and there so I am sure that will be
happening. I hate to think what is festering in the area, no clean
water or sanitation, lots of dead stuff baking in the hot sun.
We signed up to be a host family for girls who are coming to my
daughter's school, theirs in LA is gone. GONE. It ain't there no
more. Neither are their homes, jobs, neighbors, family, friends...I
can't even begin to comprehend.
Refinery capacity just dropped by a very large percentage, and the main
pipeline from here to the NE is shut down right now. A lot of Gulf
production is off line, and even if/when it comes back there are fewer
places to refine it. That means much less gasoline, diesel, or heating
oil coming from down here for some time. Y'all up in New England might
have to turn down the thermostats a bit in a few weeks, get out the old
Schwinns again.
From a friend in the industry yesterday:
"Gasoline hit a record high today, settling at $2.47/gal (up */42
cents/* from yesterday) on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In a nutshell, gas (and diesel) at the pumps will be up at least 42
cents from where they are now. Probably within days. Katrina was a
monster....."
(Benz content) I filled up the TD yesterday for $2.43, tonight it was
$2.53 at the same station. I am driving it now exclusively instead of
my truck, better fuel mileage and diesel is now a bit lower than
gasoline. While it will probably be available here for the foreseeable
future (the next week?) at a much higher price, I expect that it will be
in very short supply in other parts of the country, if at all in some
days...Time to get them veggie-mobiles going, diesel folks.
Carry on rants about about guns, dogs, email, girly men, Canadians,
taxes, politics (don't forget it /must /be Bush's fault!), and all that
on the Benz list, full of text and fury signifying nothing, but please
do not lose sight of what is turning out to be, probably, the largest
natural disaster to hit the US, ever, both in terms of immediate damage
and ongoing problems. It really is way way way beyond the locals'
ability to deal with it (it now appears they did very little even to
prepare for it -- that is a whole 'nuther topic), umclear just how TO
deal with it even with national help.
Oh well, it's bedtime. Whatever your politics or views on other topics,
there's a lot of folks who need a lot of help, and it is getting worse
daily for them. Please think about them, try to do something to help,
put some (all?) of the useless bitching about other random stuff in
perspective.
Oh, and hurricane season is not yet over! Check out the central
Atlantic right now.
--R
