From the blogsphere:

"The extent of this event has not dawned on most media and public.

UNLESS I am misinformed, power outages prevent draining the basin.
Power can't be restored until the basin is drained. Pump stations are
drowned, and can't be fixed until drained. Is this correct?

If it is correct, or largely correct, or even about half correct, that
water already there is there for weeks, if not months, to come.

Without housing, services, groceries, fuels of all kinds, the
population cannot return. Is that factually correct?

Emergency refugee housing for 500,000 people needs to begin getting
discussed because credit cards will be maxed in days at motel rates.

Somebody mature and in position of leadership ought to be addressing
these issues. Critisms for failure by incompetent leaders comes later,
but there's no saving their hide when that time does arrive.

New Orleans is broken, unlivable at this moment. There needs to be
planning for 500,000 homeless people for a minimum of two months.

Water damage to flooded structures requires each and every one to be
completely inspected before rehabitation. There's not enough trained
inspectors in the country to do it as fast as people might want.

Besides toilets out of order, sewer systems undoubtably overflowed.
Garbage is already reported floating in the mix. Gas station tanks have to be leaking into it.
What's in cars is leaking into the waters.
Corpses will be decomposing -- many dead abandoned pets to say the
least. This stinking mudd sludge is coating insides aand outsides of
80% of the building's, at least on the ground floor.

Water and power cannot be restored before the water is drained. Broken
mains compromise water purity.

The workforce which operates the port and refineries has no place to
live. Fuels are hit in a powerful way, as is major commerce.

This is the biggest tragedy of your lifetimes.
Those who prepared their minds early are best able to cope with the dimensions of it.
For now, the stock market has not responded, the major media is brain-fogged, and politicians at all levels above mayors seem not to have got the message yet.

If you are functional. first act is to spread this word.
New Orleans is mortally wounded.
This is not hyperbole, but reasoned conclusion based on facts
verified by people on the ground and reverified by multiple sources."


I'm so relieved to have just heard a dear friend from the Big Easy made it safely to Memphis with her family, and even found lodging. It's been a rough couple days since I heard from her last. And now, reading the above, that sense of relief feels almost shameful...