Eerily Correct Prediction

Sent to a couple of lists:

By now, you may have heard about the October 2004 National Geographic Article on Louisiana wetlands that contains a fairly accurate description of what has just happened in New Orleans.

P. & M. will be especially interested in the bio/eco/hydro aspects of how decisions made upstream affect the downstream populations.

For the rest of us, it's just a bizarre read that might spark some discussion about stewardship of resources, natural tendencies that people have to discount risks to themselves, etc.

A few sample sentences:

Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst
natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Above is one of the best photos I've seen regarding the scale of the clean-up involved.