Katrina Disaster Predicted in October 2004
by John Agno
Published on this site: September 5th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
The headline of the feature article, Gone with the Water,
in National Geographic Magazine in October 2004 read: The
Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big
trouble-with dire consequences for residents: the nearby city
of New Orleans.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane
strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the
nation, up there with a large earthquakein California or a
terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer
opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to
its workers is too great.
"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm
at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at
48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours-coming from the worst
direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer
at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying
the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on
an actual August afternoon sipping lemonadeand talking about
the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think
people realize how precarious we are," Suhayda says,
watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great
when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."
The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given
year are slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists
predict that powerful storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from
global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risk.
"It's not if it will happen," says University of
New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when."
Click for the complete National Geographic Magazine, October
2004, article:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/
feature5/index.html
It wasn't a secret that levees built to keep New Orleans
from flooding could not withstand a major hurricane. Last
year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for
hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House
slashed the request to about $40 million and Congress finally
authorized $42.2 million.
Sometimes, even when you know a disaster will happen, you
just ignore the danger and pretend that it won't.
John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach
Signature, Inc., PO Box 2086, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Telephone:
734.426.2000 (US Eastern Time Zone)
Email: mailto:[email protected]
The most critical knowledge is self-knowledge.
http://www.MentoringandCoaching.com
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