August 31, 2005

New Orleans totally evacuated amid threats of disease from the toxic raw sewage in the hundred degree tropical heat. Dead bodies float in the water (in and out of coffins) widespread looting, shootings, a descent into anarchy.  

Wynton Marsalis on Nightline talking about the history and cultural importance of New Orleans, especially its influence on American music. Jazz music was the “sound of democracy” of everyone swinging, drums and bass grooving together. (I think this is an excellent metaphor).            

The future of New Orleans can be like the future of Chicago after the fire, and it can revive itself quite quickly, even though the city is abandoned. It is still a place, and will be re-placed. but it will be the new New Orleans, just as good as the old, or even better, as in Chicago.

I look at the pictures of the inundated city, and most of it will have to be razed. This will take years to redevelop. How can the U.S. do it the right way?

Interesting photos:

Aerial shot of swamped neighborhoods--just the rooftops. (An old development; with homes irregularly placed--nothing straight--are they floating?

A woman and her child marooned on a small patch of the roof of their house.

***

[8/29/2025: Katrina was like a 9/11 in many ways. When you watch the Fox coverage, they're covering how the recovery includes LNG plants--"drill baby drill", not realizing, or not caring, about the irony. But Hurricane Camille hit the same area as a Cat 5 in 1969 when CO2 levels were 323 and it was just as devastating. But they are now 430. Surface water temperatures in 1969 were 82-84 F compared to 84-92 F in 2025. Even if a storm hits as a 1 or 2, and is slow-moving, rainfall is probably higher. The real issue is sustainable development in hurricane-prone areas. But isn't development a sunk cost over decades? People moved there not knowing the probabilities because it wasn't known then. The media didn't start covering climate change until the 90s, when it piqued my interest. It's also interesting that it took a few days for all the media coverage to accumulate, two days after landfall, probably because it was pre-social media].