I’m reluctant to join the blame-fest surrounding the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, but I saw something today that I think is worth talking about. Here is an article from National Geographic magazine that describes in detail a hurricane coming and hitting New Orleans, along with the aftermath and destruction that would bring. What’s interesting about that? This article was published October of 2004. Read the first couple paragraphs and it’s hard to imagine this is a prediction rather than a description of actual events.
The article goes on to talk about the erosion and desctruction going on in the Mississippi river delta and Louisiana wetlands that demand action in order to prevent disaster. Industrialization is threatening a lot more than just New Orleans, and it’s been common knowledge for years. Many people have predicted a disaster just like Katrina.
A group including the Army Corps of Engineers put together a plan to deal with the problem that would have cost $14 Billion over 30 years. Per the article “the Bush Administration balked at the price tag, supporting instead a plan to spend up to two billion dollars over the next ten years.” President Bush can’t claim he didn’t know. We may not have known this hurricane was going to cause this much destruction, but we knew it was coming sooner or later.