Katrina
The devastation that Katrina, the hurricane, has wrought in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is so mind boggling it’s difficult to comprehend. Each passing hour brings additional news of destruction, death, flooding and looting. Since I live on the upper Gulf coast, there was a big sigh of relief knowing we wouldn’t have to contend with a direct hit, but the worry was short lived as the hurricane gathered strength and headed for New Orleans.

I listened intently to both radio and TV for the latest tracking predictions as Katrina changed from a category 2 to a 3, then a 4, and finally to a category 5 hurricane. During the midnight hours of Sunday, August 28th, I listened to an all night call in radio program about how New Orleans would cope when the hurricane hit. It was unthinkable that we could lose an American city, but the possibility was mentioned and I began to wonder if such a thing could happen.

Before daylight, TV crews were filming the onslaught of wind, rain and storm surge. At dawn we began to get an inkling of the devastation, but it seemed that New Orleans had survived the wrath of the hurricane. As daylight allowed greater evaluation of the damage, the horrifying devastation became apparent.

Mississippi and Alabama suffered terrible loss of life and whole communities were obliterated. Television cameras panned across the areas showing piles of rubble where houses and commercial buildings once stood. When reports that levees in New Orleans were breached and water from Lake Pontchartrain had poured into the city filling it with water to roof tops, the unthinkable had happened.

The scope of the catastrophe is so overwhelming I haven’t been able to absorb the impact yet. I’m hypnotized by television photos of people waiting for rescue on roof tops and scenes of autos in hotel lobbies. There are reports of hundreds of bodies floating in the water. Helicopters hover in place as coast guardsmen rappel below to rescue survivors.

The country is barely beginning to realize the extent of the greatest natural disaster we have ever experienced. In the next few days reality will seep into our consciousness that we have lost an American city as we once knew it. A collective effort toward solving long term needs of its inhabitants and plans to save and rebuild as much of the old New Orleans will emerge.



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