Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Watching the news this week has been both stunning and humbling. A lot of my colleagues ask me about weather related phenomena and the hurricane was no exception. When it became clear that New Orleans was under the gun and then the storm's strength exploded out int he Gulf I told everyone that New Orleans woudl cease to be a city. Right now, that's happening. They can't stop the flooding nor will they be able to before the lake and the river heights reach some sort of equilibrium with the water in the city. No electricity, no water, no sewer, sporatic law enforcement and lots and lots of dead prople. This has happened before in our nation's history. The Galvaston hurricane did basically the same thing and now Galvaston is little more than a quaint tourist attraction. It'll take years to clean this up and I expect most of the displaced, with nothing left to tie them to the region, will find other places to live and work.

I also predicted gas would hit $3 per gallon this summer. I was right though not in the way expected. Some analysts are predicting $4 per gallon before the supply crunch eases. The hybrid purchase looks better all the time. So does riding my bike. I bet I could drive to Atlanta and sell my hybrid for $20K today if I wanted to. Maybe get a dealer to trade straight across for a tricked out Element. The AJC is reporting that Altanta could face gas shortages this weekend and beyond. The SUV is the Altanta area "state insect" as it were. They're everywhere down here and my guess is that there's not near enough gas to run them all. The thought of Atlanta and scarcity in anything makes me glad I live outside of the metro area and within 2 miles of my workplace.

Anyways, my prayers go out to those in the Big Wet: Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama.

Thanks for Reading

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