divine angst

Not to be pessimistic or anything, but we should all begin to mentally prepare for the loss of New Orleans. Katrina is headed straight for the mouth of the Mississippi. New Orleans’s levees aren’t prepared to handle a storm surge above 15 to 20 feet, and Katrina will probably bring a surge of up to 28 feet. The pumps that keep water out of the basin in which New Orleans sits will not work if they are submerged under 20 feet of water.

So, New Orleans, I am afraid, is doomed. I think there are some people who would say the city could have prepared more for the “big one,” but I’m not certain there are any preparations that would keep a city that is 70% below sea level (and in some places up to 3 or 4 feet below sea level) from being destroyed by even a modest storm.

I worry, too, about the bayou communities. Many of the small towns in southern Louisiana are going to be flooded badly. There will be lives lost. But the water will recede down in the bayou. In New Orleans, it won’t have anywhere to go. It will sit inside the levees and stagnate.

For the next 24 hours, keep New Orleans in your prayers. I cringe to think that this beautiful, historic city might be decimated. I hope for some freak of nature that will push Katrina somewhere else, somewhere less populated, somewhere less vulnerable. More likely, though, we’ll be seeing New Orleans on the news a lot in the next few weeks and Katrina will probably rival Andrew for notoriety in the years to come.