[lit-ideas] Re: New Orleans
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:49:02 -0700
Julie wrote:
<<60,000 people in the Superdome>>
How did it get to be that many? Yesterday they were reporting roughly
10,000..... I heard NPR say they were going to have to evacuate the
superdome -- how in the world do you evacuate even 10,000 people?! And
to where??
The latest figure I heard (I'm half-listening to CNN right now) is
20,000, with more making their way to what's the only remaining shelter
in New Orleans. It was 90º (32º C) today in New Orleans. It's hotter
inside the Dome. No toilets. No electricity. There is no drinking water
in the city, none.
Eighty-percent of New Orleans is under water. Some areas are not yet
accessible even to rescue craft. The mayor would like all 800,000
residents to evacuate the city, although as Julie says, where would they
go, and how would they get there? In any case, those who did leave won't
be able to return for a very long time.
Flood water is not like water from your bathtub only deeper: it's filled
with human waste, dead animals, trees, mud, logs, boards, plastic
containers, gasoline, diesel fuel, toxic chemicals, germs—and in this
case, poisonous snakes. The city's pumps, which were designed to remove
accumulations of rainwater, etc., don't work, of course, and if they're
ever functional again they won't be able to cope with such a mass of water.
They're unable, as of now, to repair the breached levies, and the water
is still rising.
On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, there is equally terrible destruction.
Many deaths.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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