Eerily prophetic

This article starts out reading exactly like a description of Katrina .... but National Geographic printed it in April 2001.  The article makes the telling point that even without development eating away at its barrier wetlands, New Orleans' days were numbered: it loses approximately two acres of protective wetlands and barrier islands per hour to the Gulf of Mexico, 25 square miles a year, 1,900 square miles since the 1930s.  That's like the entire state of Delaware washing away in seventy years.  Part of the problem is the oil development in the Gulf and southern Louisiana -- guess what?  You pump oil and gas out of the ground, the ground sinks.

You know what we really need to do about New Orleans?  We need to get the remaining people out, maybe cofferdam the French Quarter to preserve it as a historic area ... then dynamite the Mississippi and Pontchartrain levees and stop trying to fight nature there.  Because whether the levees hold or not, it's a fight we're losing.

Good Samaritan, in spades

radarrider came across this account of a 100% disabled vet who loaded up his deuce-and-a-half with food and water paid for out of his own pocket, drove to the Gulf, and spent four days doing disaster relief all on his own.

"Sarge" says he's not a hero.  Sorry, Sarge, I call bullshit on that disclaimer.

Reposted from guns