Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Katrina

New Orleans is one of my favorite places in the world, and I've met many incredibly nice and interesting people (with worse accents than mine ever was) there. It's been years since I've been to Mississippi or Alabama, but I have fond memories of those places too. It's painful to see the pictures of the devestation, and I can't help but feel the deepest sympathy for all the people affected, especially those who will have a difficult time dealing with and recovering from this tragedy financially. There is a great deal of poverty in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and I'm sure that this will be too much for many to overcome on their own. I hope everyone who can is donating to the Red Cross, or another equally reputable relief organization, so that no one will have to get through this alone.

2 comments:

Clark Goble said...

I lived around Baton Rouge for two years. What is most tragic about all of this is how everyone there wasn't just expecting this but was expecting something worse. Like 9/11 shook us out of our slumber regarding terrorism, maybe this will be a significant wake up call to natural disasters that we keep pretending won't happen. New Orleans never should have been built up the way it was. Hopefully this will lead to the abandoning of the city and building further inland. (I just can't see any insurance company insuring buildings in the city after this)

cheap vintage jewelry findings said...

Yeah, this was a case of engineers not planning for the one anomaly that can wipe out pretty much any statistical data they were placing their confidence in. Sloppy or inadequate building standards was a major cause of the devastation that took place.