Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Speaking too soon

The last few days have been so weird. First there was dreading Katrina hitting New Orleans then relief that it sort of missed the city followed by horror and dismay as it became apparent that the end result is pretty much the same. NO is flooded and looks like a lake on satellite photos. Many, many people are missing.

Nobody knows how many dead there are but so far it's like a replay of the days falling the tsunami in December. You hear a number and then you hear another number and it's bigger and you know that the real number is still hidden underwater, lurking like some awful prehistoric monster, submerged, waiting to be revealed. I'm afraid that the actual number will be so big that we can't really understand it.

The tension is awful. The comments from people who should no better but who always revel in the blame the victim mentality are unbearable.

I'm grieving for a city I've never visited, a city I know through fiction and some research for various columns. Of all the cities in the US NO is/was vying with San Francisco for most romantic or romanticized city. It hurts our hearts to think of her and her people in such horrific circumstances.

I was watching video footage of flooding and fire and I heard the announcer say the firemen could do nothing. The hoses were flat because the water mains are broken. It made me think of the 1906 San Francisco fire and how only the one fire hydrant kept working. The damage that I imagine is similar and words fail me.

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