Monday, August 29, 2005

Big Blowhard In The USA

And for once I won't mention, too often at least, George W. Bush. The big blowhard in question is Hurricane Katrina. If I were living in New Orleans at the moment I would be crapping my dacks. Winds of 260 km/h, strong rain and a probable storm surge of 8m. Ooooh, that's powerful. And scarey.

They showed some of the to-be-renamed "We-have-to-rebuild-it-to-make-it-New Orleans" on the news. It, the city, is situated next to a large lake. In fact, it is built about two or three metres below the level of the lake. The view on the telly was quite clear. Why would anybody in their right mind build a city that was a few metres below sea level with a large body of sea-level height water situated next to it. A catastophe waiting to happen.

And what if the levee banks are broken and much of the city is flooded? Is George W. gonna recall the troops in Iraq to rebuild it? Methinks not. I wonder if the Bush Administration would be able to sue the French who were responsible for building the city of New Orleans in such a ridiculous spot. Plausible.

I'm very surprised that something catastrophic hasn't happened before as people have been living there for a couple of hundred years. Well, since the city of New Orleans was founded in 1718 by the French. Bloody French. And I've just learnt that they sold Louisiana and Florida to the US. Think of all those French condominia they could have had. Sorry, got a little sidetracked there.

I've experience a typhoon in Japan. Bloody strong winds and a bit of rain. Ruined my flight for that day. Next day was perfect weather. Minimal damage but there wasn't a storm surge to contend with.

I bet the sale of boats is going to increase in New Orleans, seasonally adjusted of course, following Hurricane Katrina's havoc. Hang on to your hats people. I hope everything works out ok. But pictures of mass destruction would make a raft of documentaries possible.

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