Obviously, this entry is going to be on Hurricane Katrina. I think it's very appropriate. It is a monster storm that left damage, destruction, and devastation in its wake.
It was a very impressive storm after it first crossed extreme southern Florida and strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico. At 6:00 pm last night (eastern time) the eye was incredible. I haven't seen an eye like that in a storm in quite some time. I don't usually put pictures in my blog, but I'll make an exception this once. (Of course, if I like how it turns out, you may be seeing pictures again.) I saved this one from the NOAA website. It's the GOES storm floater visible satellite picture yesterday late afternoon.
So, the hurricane made landfall early this morning in Louisiana, and then again on the LA/MS border. I watched a little of the coverage this morning while I was eating breakfast. What can I say? I'm a weather weenie. I'm very interested in storms and the destruction they leave behind. But then I had to go to campus to try to get some work done, which was hard to do with all the articles I could read about what was going on with the storm.
Needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot done today. One of the articles I read from cnn.com told of how New Orleans could have become a huge expanse of toxic sludge, what with the possibility of water treatment plants being ripped apart by the storm and other such buildings. I was deeply disturbed by this article mainly because I felt bad for anyone that had no means of evacuating the city when they had the chance. The most disturbing part of the article was a comment by Ivor van Heerden, from the LSU Hurricane Center:
"Imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And eventually, the fire ants will win."
Isn't that just a depressing thought? I'm not even sure what to make of that. My guess is that the ants will viciously attack the human clinging to the light pole for dear life and I guess that person is going to die. Talk about horrible ways to die! (If you want, you can read the whole article here.)
Just watching the damage being shown from various sources today kind of makes one take stock of one's life. There was another article I read today, again on cnn.com (click here). The quote that I found incredibly sad is as follows:
"The water's rising pretty fast. I got a hammer and an ax and a crowbar, but I'm holding off on breaking through the roof until the last minute. Tell someone to come get me please. I want to live."
This is from Chris Robinson (via cnn.com) talking to the Associated Press on his cell phone. I cannot imagine what it must have been like being anywhere that Katrina had hit. I don't know how or if I could have handled it. Of course, then there are those reporters who are getting blown around trying to show people what it's like in the hurricane, but yet telling them that their best bet is to stay inside. Um, hello? Shouldn't you be following your own advice? I realize that a video camera is not going to be able to withstand hurricane force winds if left alone outside, but take video from inside a building. Or at least wait until there is a lull in the storm, relatively speaking, of course. But, hey, who am I to judge what's been going on for as long as I can remember? I'm just saying that one of these times, some guy reporting the news is going to get hurt in one of these storms, and it isn't going to be pretty.
I also heard on CNN on Paula Zahn's show that in one of the states, I can't remember which right now because there was so much devastation, that some of the rescuers saw bodies floating in the floodwaters. It really makes me sad that some people didn't have the means to escape before the storm hit. It makes me angry at the others who figured this would just be a false alarm again, kind of like the boy who cried wolf, so they decided to stay and wait it out. I think this might teach people to take the weather seriously.
Well, I think I've hit all the things I want to say about this storm. My thoughts and prayers go out to those survivors that they get rescued and can return to their homes and rebuild their lives. Even with my morbid curiousity and needing to see coverage a lot, my heart still goes out to these people. Now, with that, I say good night at this time. My next entry will hopefully not be so serious, but who knows? It all depends on what's going on in the world.
*edited 9/5/05 11:22am
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