Hurricane Katrina Reflections

More than a week after Katrina made a rather ugly and terrifying landfall on the Gulf Coast, my head is filled with a thousand random thoughts about the entire ordeal. I don't even know how to begin making an articulate commentary, so I'll just sit back and fire away:

• I firmly believe that no one, and I mean no one, can honestly say that they woke up last Monday and imagined that this disaster would reach the scope and magnitude that began materializing on Tuesday morning. Not the mayor, not the governor, not the meteorologists, not FEMA, not the President, and not even any wacky, voodoo psychics in the Crescent City. But the New Orleans Times-Picayune came pretty dang close in this series of articles published three years ago. Some of the articles and graphics are no longer available online, but the headlines alone could easily portray an accurate historical account of the events of the last week.

• Regardless of your political inclinations, there could not be a more inappropriate time to bring politics into the forefront of public debate. Give it a rest. Maybe, when the water's drained and the sludge, slime, and muck are scraped off of the streets of NOLA, the politicians can meet for their finger-pointing gunfight, but I suspect that few people will care where blame really lies. I'm not saying there aren't lessons to learn, but I reckon the vast majority of the victims don't want anyone to pay with blood.

• For the most part, I've been impressed with how the TV news networks have covered this crisis. I have watched all of the major broadcast and cable news programs at some point and I can say with certainty that they have looked at and dissected every angle of the story with (mostly) dignity and the highest levels of sensitivity. I could do with out all of the second-guessing and armchair quarterbacking, but I've learned to tune it out since I know that most of the reporters and anchors engaging in that type of behavior know about as much as I do about the inner-workings of the federal government, FEMA, and the military.

• Several times over the last week, I have tried to imagine myself in the place of the someone left stranded (by choice or by circumstance) as a result of Katrina. No food, no water, no soda, no TV, no internet, no Tivo, no "Big Brother", no "Rome", no air conditioning, etc. I've thanked the Lord each day that I have what I have.

• I haven't read up enough on the subject just yet, but I can't begin to imagine the impact that the floodwater will have on the environment. The toxic water being pumped out of NOLA is going into Lake Pontchatrain, the Mississippi, and probably the Gulf of Mexico. One has to wonder if the flora and fauna of Southern Louisiana will ever be the same again.

• When the water recedes and life starts to make a little progress back toward normal, I hope we as a country take a moment to look into disaster planning. While we may have taken huge steps toward preventing a planned attack after 9/11/2001, we obviously have a few weaknesses in our ability to respond to a disaster over which we have no control.

Given the fact that the recovery following this storm will take months, if not years, I doubt these will be my last thoughts on the matter. Stay tuned.