http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/n...re5/index.html

Great story about a great tragedy that was predicted but not prevented.


To glimpse the urgency of the problem afflicting Louisiana, one need only drive 40 minutes southeast of New Orleans to the tiny bayou village of Shell Beach. Here, for the past 70 years or so, a big, deeply tanned man with hands the size of baseball gloves has been catching fish, shooting ducks, and selling gas and bait to anyone who can find his end-of-the-road marina. Today Frank "Blackie" Campo's ramshackle place hangs off the end of new Shell Beach. The old Shell Beach, where Campo was born in 1918, sits a quarter mile away, five feet beneath the rippling waves. Once home to some 50 families and a naval air station during World War II, the little village is now "ga'an pecan," as Campo says in the local patois. Gone forever.

OK, damage control: I wrote "great" meaning a colossal tragedy. The story is "great" meaning it was well-researched and well-written. Coffee, anyone?

Need more foreshadowing? Read this article that appeared in US News & World Report July 18, 2005 -- only 6 weeks prior to Katrina. It's eerily prophetic.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/ar...neworleans.htm

Yes, Nimrod it is VERY prophetic, except for one blaring line:

"If a Category 5 storm enters the Gulf, I don't think we'll have to encourage people to leave--it'll be an easy sell," says New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin

Patrick - Are you saying that the article was wrong because so many people did not evacuate? The storm was a category 4 hurricane. Did it start out as a category 5 hurricane? Well, regardless, it is difficult to blame those who did not get out for this debacle. I just hope that the public keeps pressing the fed govt for accountability for its lack of quick response. The more I hear that this scenario was played out in news article after article, the angrier I get. How could FEMA not have a plan, or at least require that the city of New Orleans have a plan?

It was Category 5 for a couple of days, and downgraded to 4 just before it hit land.

FEMA has a plan. State of Louisiana has a plan. And City of New Orleans supposed to have a plan. Just that most of them weren't carried out.

Hey, Feh, whatever you guys are doing in the lab Thursday, I hope your team does get some coffee!! We need great product from CA. I wrote "great", meaning well-researched and well-written Intel chips.

Thanks for the National Geographic reference. Here's one for you: an article written in 2004 about the Hurricane Pam scenario - the federal disaster preparedness exercise for a hurricane like Katrina. It was all there, including the fact that many had no cars to evacuate:

http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/newsr...cyexercise.htm