I did't know you had a rural section of the coastline. I look at google
sat maps from earlier this year and its just a string of suburbs from
Texus to florida.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=New+Orleans,+LA has an up to date
sat photo of the damaged CBD. Click on 'Katrina'.
Jed Rothwell wrote:
Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
This storm was powerful and the effects were awful, but not
unprecedented. It was partly bad luck.
I'm not sure "bad luck" is the right term for it.
I meant bad luck in the sense that it hit New Orleans, rather than a
rural section of the coastline. It has been known for a long time that
the levees and pumps in New Orleans need repairs and upgrades, and
that the city is exceptionally vulnerable to hurricane damage.
Of course it was bound to be hit sooner or later.
As people learn more about nature and our control over nature
increases, the notion of "luck" becomes less and less applicable to
natural disasters. Things like polio and tsunamis are natural in
origin, obviously, but the fact that they still kill large numbers of
people nowadays is entirely our fault. Avian flu cannot be prevented.
It will probably cross over to our species eventually. It will kill
hundreds of thousands of people -- mainly sick, old people, we hope.
That is normal for any new form of influenza, and it cannot be
prevented. But if it kills millions of healthy young people that will
be our fault. That can probably be prevented with proper public health
measures and intense research now, while there is still time. The
rapid evolution and spread of avian flu is caused by bad sanitation
and thousands of chickens crammed together. The high toll from the
1918 influenza pandemic was caused by human activity: mainly war and
the famine it triggered, and improved transportation.
- Jed
