Gustav Looms On Katrina’s Anniversary

Posted by Lorren on August 29, 2008

Anybody remember what they were doing three years ago? Well, I can’t remember what I was doing 3 years ago to the minute, or even the hour, but I do know what was on my mind and heart… Katrina. I was praying for the people in the Superdome, and afterwards, I mourned with the people that lost loved ones and homes. I didn’t have any money to send to them, but I did spend a little time volunteering for a Wiki project that tried to help people locate missing loved ones.

New Orleans and Mississippi have not yet finished rebuilding yet. According to CNN.com, people are still living in FEMA trailers.

New Orleans is still sinking. Even before Katrina, news organizations were questioning whether Louisiana was the new Atlantis or not. I don’t know how the levees will hold up this time, but I do know that some unscrupulous companies were caught using shredded newspaper instead of impermeable rubber when they were building them. Hopefully only the company that was caught.

Evacuation plans are starting to be made, and hopefully those that were there will remember the lessons of Katrina and not try to brave it out behind. I still remember somebody that was interviewed in some New Orlean’s bar as Katrina was about to hit… he had no intention of evacuating and was still acting as if life was a big party. I still wonder what happened to him when the dam broke… was it still a big party then?

Hopefully the new governor, Bobby Jindal, will be able to help all of those without transportation evacuate. I hope that people learned lessons from last time, where parking lots full of buses sat, unused, while people clamored for an escape.

A bigger question that maybe we should be thinking to ourselves is… is it wise to build in New Orleans anyway? I know that Mississippi and other states are hit with hurricanes too, but the main issue with New Orleans is that most of the city is below sea level and located near the coast. This isn’t Death Valley, which is below sea level but not likely to be overtaken by a flooding ocean any time soon… this is a city on the Gulf of Mexico. The amount of money spent per resident after Katrina is astronomical… and we might have to do it again, slightly over 3 years later. Wouldn’t it make more sense to let people build at their own risk, and if people choose not to build, we can have a really nice wildlife preserve?

Make no mistake about it, I’m not for the rewilding of America, like some Agenda 21 people or extreme environmentalists are. It just doesn’t make a great deal of sense to keep building and building and building in a location that is below sea level and still sinking. We are not God. As much as the people in Dubai like to disagree, we are not the creators of land. Perhaps God is trying to tell us something.

I’m praying for the best in this situation… hopefully Gustav will miraculously turn out to sea, or downgrade to a tropical storm and not cause much damage. But if not… perhaps rebuilding again… for the second time in less than 5 years, is not exactly wise.