We Knew This Would Happen
By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Monday, September 5 2005, 5:10PM
NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams reports on his blog today that the National Weather Service actually warned officials eight days ago that the hurricane that would strike the Gulf Coast would be the most destructive natural disaster in a generation. (Incidentally, the Weather Service site also includes more than 350 aerial images of the hurricane damage.) This is the actual message from the National Weather Service.
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005
...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...
HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.
MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER.
AT LEAST HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED...ALL WINDOWS WILL BE BLOWN OUT.
THE VAST MAJORITY...OF TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED.
POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.
Comments conceal
tj
September 5 2005, 10:25PM
Yes, the hurricane they're calling it is Maria. Let's hope that this hurricane desapates before it reaches the Gulf Coast.
tj
Bklynbro
September 6 2005, 7:35PM
And the Black politicians new about it too. But where was their effort to get their poor constituents out? Where were the many black churches to help getting people out? I thought there was supposed to be strength in numbers. If black people in a city that's 70% black can't get it together then Black America's future is very vulnerable indeed.
cmoney
September 6 2005, 9:09PM
I pity the weather bureaucrat who had to deliver this news to the Bush administration. Their theme song is "Don't bring me no bad news". Perhaps they knew what happened to all of the government officials who warned Bush that going into Iraq would be a disaster and that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Many a government employee's career has been ruined or ended by speaking truthfully to this administration. (Most recently a justice department lawyer was almost fired for publishing a study that proved that Blacks and Hispanics were three times more likely to be searched after a traffic stop than whites. He sued and got his job back) This administration has no use for science--especially when the facts disagree with their political goals.
escritor
September 6 2005, 10:18PM
The blame doesn't begin and end with the
Bush Administration. Does Nagin (the mayor
of New Orleans) really believe all he
owed his community was a "run for your
lives" order? Let him feel the heat from
the same campfire Bush and FEMA are roasted
at. And just once, I'd like to see him
answer a hard question without asking a
question or shifting the blame. And he
should know, Jesse Jackson doesn't run
"interference" as effectively as he use
to.