An Indirect Hit so Horrific that I Can't Even Imagine a Direct Hit

Before Katrina struck, residents of Southern Louisiana were told to get out. Hard enough to do even if you have a car, given the hundreds of thousands sitting in gridlock on I-10; harder to do, of course, if you're one of the walking poor. A direct hit by a hurricane has always been a worse-case scenario for New Orleans. For decades, scientists have said that if N.O. takes a direct hit, the devastation will be be catastrophic. Well, N.O. didn't take a direct hit, only a hard blow, and the city will not have wide-spread power for at least two months. Tens of thousands of people have no place to live. There is no commerce. There is no tourism. The largest search and rescue operation in America is now underway. There is no real idea, yet, of how many people have died and they didn't take a direct hit.

But it's not just New Orleans.
Baton Rouge is a mess of downed trees and demolished homes.
Collapsed buildings in Jefferson Parish.
Hundreds stranded on rooftops in St. Bernard Parish.
Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, flooded and impassable. Hundreds of buildings damaged.
Mobile, Alabama under 12 feet of water.
And that's from places where they have actually been able to report the damage.

And freeways are under water, there is no food, no water, no ice and the very real potential for a bigger disaster from human and animal remains, levees that haven't already broken and rapidly breeding mosquitoes.

Remember the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.