Drowning with sorrow

Setting aside for a moment the tragic loss of thousands of lives, many of whom were unable to evacuate the coast and were stuck in New Orleans with all the morons who said "oh, no! We'll ride it out!" That whole mess aside, I am really devastated by the loss of New Orleans. NO was, arguably, the coolest city in the USA. It was the epicenter of a unique culture. Jazz, that amazing genre of music which has been called the only truly American art form, was invented in NO. It was an intersection of several cultures, which over the centuries evolved into something utterly itself. It was French, Creole, Carribean Indian, and African. The Creole language is unique to the NO area. NO was famous for its food, hospitality, parties (Mardis Gras in particular), and general otherness. There's no other way to put it. It was it's own thing, and it didn't give a shit about the rest of the world.

The city is gone.

As of this morning, 80% of the city was under 20 feet of water or more, and the water was still rising. it was estimated that another 10% of the city would be under 10 feet of water within a matter of hours. The city is at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, and is situated below sea level. It only existed because of a series of dikes, levees, and pumping stations, which continually pumped water out of the city. The levees were destroyed by the category 4 hurricane, and the pumps are no longer operational. The death toll is estimated in the thousands. I think that's conservative, because soon people will start dying of diseases that will be spread by the water. The water which currently has thousands of dead bodies floating in it.

No one's saying it yet, but the city is gone. It won't be rebuilt. The coastline will be redrawn. Even if people were willing and able to spend the billions of dollars necessary to drain and rebuild the city, it would quixotic fantasy, since nothing would prevent the next F4 storm from repeating the devastation. (Oh, damn. I just did it. I was going to try to write this post without using the word "devastation." Well shit.)