Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is the only thing on the news today, same as yesterday. Hotel lobbies have had the television on so that everyone eating breakfast can listen to the news about the tragedy and whether Bush will release some of the strategic oil reserves in this state of emergency. I was thrilled to find an NPR station today playing All Things Considered until I heard more about Hurricane Katrina again. They had a guy on who was talking about how the levees that have been keeping the Mississippi out of New Orleans when it floods have been keeping the floods from depositing fresh earth on the Mississippi delta. Since oil drilling and other human activities have been helping out erosion down there, the Gulf of Mexico has been getting closer at an alarming rate. He also said that the billions of dollars worth of real estate is worth saving and that, in general, the levees are a good thing.

I don't know. Hurricane Katrina starts with a K. That means that this is the eleventh tropical storm this year. The mere fact that they name their storms down there could be considered an indication of a "trend". Every year, millions, if not billions of dollars of damage are caused by tropical storms. How can this be called a "disaster" or and "emergency" when it happens so often. Your house doesn't have a roof anymore? I guess you didn't nail it on well enough. You just got rescued in a boat? Why did you stay in the first place, and why isn't your house on pontooons? You knew there were hurricanes and floods in the southeast when you moved there.

So, yes, it's bad that this happened, but I have a hard time having much sympathy when it happens so often.

In other news, I passed through the ironically named town of Biggsville, population 350 today. I also passed through Lucas, Iowa and will be passing through Davenport, Iowa later this week. Not really important, but now my page will get hits from people doing searches on John Sandford books.

And finally, while listening to LAZER something FM. They played One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer as sung by George Thorogood (as a cover, sort of), and I thought to myself: I think I have all of those at home.

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