Potentially Catastrophic

It's hard to be in Texas and not talk about hurricanes these days. First there was Katrina. Now Rita is about to arrive. I just checked on the web. The latest update by the National Hurricane Center announced that Rita has strengthen to a Category 5 storm over the Gulf of Mexico. Category 5 storms are classified as "potentially catastrophic".

(image from National Hurricane Center)


New Orleans ia really not having a very good run as prediction has it possibly in the path of Rita as well and many fear the levees may not hold if there is another storm surge. Most of the New Orleans residents are still in much distress after their lives turned upside down in a matter of days. The lucky ones made it out and sustained only material losses. There are those who have lost everything - childhood memories, friends, family, their whole town. Some are still searching for love ones who have gone missing since Katrina hit.

Some people compared the damage done by Katrina to the Tsunami in Asia. Both were natural diasters, damages made by wind and water. In both storms, many lives were lost and properties were damaged. However, many Americans believe a lot of the losses in New Orleans could have been avoidable had the federal government acted earlier in evacuating New Orleans's occupants. Katrina's path has been tracked and analyzed for quite some period before it actually hit land. So in theory, mandatory evacuations could have been in placed at a much earlier date and some questioned why there seemed to have been no emergency plans in place (you hear stories of people going without water, food, or clean clothing etc. while they stayed inside the superdomes). It is no news that a lot of people didn't have the means to leave town themselves. How come the government did not help to move these people out of the area earlier?

Of course in hind sight, there are always things that "should have been done" and everything seems apparent now. I guess it was a very heavy price to pay in order to "learn the lesson". The general public of America feels the pain and there has been countless stories of people going to extraordinary lengths to help out Katrina evacuees - ranging from food and money donations, to forming petrol teams to rescue people stuck in their houses, and civilians opening up their own homes to strangers who they have never met from cities as far as New York and San Francisco. I believe these are the stories that give all of us hope and faith in humanity.

It is just ironic that decision makers who could have done something are never really located where diasters strike. It also seems that politicians only really swing into action when it is pre-election time, or after the fact. It might be a gross generalization but I guess "crows are black everywhere under the sun".

At least mandatory evacuation of the costal areas have started early this week for Hurricane Rita. Residents are also much more willing to leave their home this time - after seeing the devestation of New Orleans.

Dallas is located much further north of Texas so I am not really going to be heavily affected where I am, apart from the strong wind and thunderstorm that's due to come around this weekend. For now, there is nothing us mere human can do except sit tight, take cover, and pray for Rita to clam down.
(image from maps.google.com, red outline indicate areas in Louisiana and Texas that might be affected by Rita)

(Strike Probabilities Map from National Hurricane Center)