I have not had much to say about the situation in Louisiana because I am floored at the footage I have been watching. Not having access to anything but the night’s half-hour of evening news, I was appalled at the destruction waged on New Orleans and Biloxi, the fact that the structures meant to keep the water out flood the city further, that this hurricane target was so unprepared for disaster, the people and pets hacking through their attics, waiting on rooftops to be saved from endless spans of water.
The damage will be long-lived: streets covered in mud and sand, houses coated in petroleum, a city overrun with mosquitos and disease, lives ruined, people dead and dying, a national landmark city leveled.
I read this story and cried for a long while, thinking of the horror of yet another Sophie’s Choice. The loss, real and imagined, is overwhelming.
And while the Gulf Coast drowned, Nero strummed his gee-tar.
How infuriatingly cavalier.
Only in the face of a national disaster did Bush cut short his five-week vacation, but not before a valuable photo-op.
via The Heretik
UPDATE: For many, many pictures of the situation in the Gulf, see Kathryn Cramer’s collection of pictures found about the internets.
UPDATE II: In other news, it’s not looting if you’re white. Also, a reader clues me in to the video footage noted above.