Wednesday, August 31, 2005

New Orleans

Because the news sites are so inflationary, I don't listen to them. So, when something actually important happens, it takes several days to get to me.

I just thought I'd point out that New Orleans is GONE. 80% of the city is flooded - and that's not temporary, because New Orleans is largely below sea level. Even when the city is dried out, the flood damage to the infrastructure will be severe. Functionally, New Orleans is GONE.

The amazing part is how few casualties there are. You have to be on crack to believe the "less than two hundred" numbers they're spouting now, but there's a maximum cap of 26,000, because that's how many people are unaccounted for. Even if ALL those people are dead (which seems highly unlikely), the city held half a million. That's a 5% fatality rate. And it's probably closer to 1%. That means that an ENTIRE CITY was saved.

They made some good freaking decisions. In that situation, one could hope for no better. That storm could have easily killed 100,000+ people.

Why the fuck are people scared of terrorists, again?

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