So I take a week off and all hell breaks loose. I was in Georgia and was able to feel the secondary effects of this very large and powerful storm. We got lots of rain and lots of lightning.
There have been many “dooms day” scenarios when it comes to global warming and hurricanes. One of them is the flooding of New Orleans. The scenario goes something like this; a massive hurricane comes ashore and breaks the levies surrounding New Orleans. The city of about half a million people is anywhere from 6-20 feet below sea level. The levies surround the city and keep it from being covered in seawater and Mississippi river water.
It seems that his horrific scenario has come to pass. The levies around this city are indeed broken and millions of gallons of water is now pouring into the city. The last I heard as many as 80,000 homes are underwater. As I am writing this, the water is still rising, and it has no place to go. The levies that protect the city are now keeping the water from draining away.
New Orleans is not nearly the only place hit by this massive storm. Large swaths of the south coast have been knocked over by Katrina. Small towns where people had little to begin with, are now left with nothing.
As a side note, oil is now over 70 (!!!) dollars a barrel. Because of the ass whooping Katrina gave to the oil platforms and pipelines in the gulf. So I ask this question again, why have the politicians from these southern states (all red states) not lobbied hard for our government to do something, ANYTHING, about global warming. Why haven’t we rebuilt the wetlands around New Orleans to buffer us from future storms? Why are these states still the ones that say global warming has nothing to do with storms or storm intensity? Only time will tell.