You Can't Take it With You

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I stayed at home on Monday with the back-to-school cold that is running around the office lately. I assumed my position on the sofa as I wanted to watch CNN for news of the impending monster cat5 hurricane Katrina. You didn't need to be a meteorologist to look at the satellite photos of the storm to notice that it was one hell of a storm since it was the size of the Gulf of Mexico and the eye was very small which is what distinguishes a strong, well organized storm from a weaker one. Even in my cold-induced fatigue, I couldn't keep from gaping at CNN reporters grasping for news before the storm made landfall and even afterwards when they had yet to realise the full amount of damage. I pondered whether there might be anything that would make me want to stay behind with a big bottle of whisky and wait out the storm as so many seemed to be doing. If I had to evacuate, what would I take with me besides Jarkko and Otava? Well, after thinking about it between commercial breaks and the crazy/stupid CNN dude out on the beach assuming that after getting killed by the hurricane his career will blossom like Wolf Blitzer's after the first Gulf War; the box of important papers and receipts, my backpack with laptop, camera and a few books and maybe a few clothes. Everything else, well, I'm just not that sentimental. You can't take it with you, any way you look at it.

Watching this all unfold on TV is so strange since it is impossible to comprehend the reality of it, even after just barely escaping Hugo (cat4) on St. Croix and seeing the denuded nob of an island left in its wake, as the amount of damage goes well beyond flooded homes and demolished bridges. What I don't understand is why a city that shares much with such places as Amsterdam, Venice and St. Petersburg, and that has expected such a catastrophe, put those too poor to escape in the Superdome which sits down in the bowl of downtown. I realise that humans cling dearly to the idea that the technology in levees, pumps and other modern machinery that make life easier is stronger than the forces of nature but you'd think we would learn after being mocked so many times in the past. Maybe it's because I watched the "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" Chiffon Margarine commercials in the 1970s too many times since I have a very healthy dose of understanding that I, and the rest of humankind, are pretty insignificant when compared to the rage of Mother Nature.

The current estimates of time to repair the damage and overall cost are, I suspect, very, very low. The flood waters are bringing in loads of toxic chemicals, petrochemicals, gasoline, oil, and name just about any other kind of home or commercial solutions not to mention all the inert substances. And sewage. Once the water recedes, the EPA will possibly have a giant superfund site on their hands. Every inch of levee will need to be inspected and possibly even rebuilt. The damage to the economy and to those who lost everything, though they hadn't much to lose to begin with, will be quite high. New Orleans will be rebuilt, even though we bitch about people who live in the floodplains of the Mississippi, those whose houses get rebuilt every few years with federal relief money, but it seems like maybe it's a good time to reconsider moving to higher ground. It's not like the sea level is getting lower anytime soon with Greenland and Antarctica beginning to thaw.

And, let's not forget that hurricane season is only just getting warmed up.

The folks living away from the coasts thinking they live in a disaster-free paradise might consider looking up "1812" and "New Madrid" with google sometime and then asking their local and state officials just how well they are prepared for an earthquake that will likely turn southern Missouri into a lake and liquefy St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock and possibly Lexington, too. I know most of the people living there haven't even heard of it much less prepared for it.

Technology only goes so far. Most of Finland is barely above sea level and I sometimes wonder what the plan is when the waters begin to rise significantly.