Eight Feet Deep

My old friend Navarro weighs in on lightweight journalists. Read his post in our comment blog.

Jeez Louise! Either U.S. Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff is an idiot or he is a pathological liar. It’s got to be one or the other. Chertoff told CNN that no one could have imagined the nightmare scenario that turned New Orleans into an apocalypse.

“That ‘perfect storm’ of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anyone’s foresight,” Chertoff said.

Sorry, Mikey, but a five-part series published by the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 2002 laid out just such a scenario.

“It’s only a matter of time before South Louisiana takes a direct hit from a major hurricane. Billions have been spent to protect us, but we grow more vulnerable every day,” says the introduction to the series.

The U.S. Government has known for many years that the New Orleans levee system was only adequate for, maybe, a Category 3 hurricane. But Chertoff, FEMA head Michael Brown and the entire Bush administration perhaps, all act surprised. Oh. That’s right. They don’t read newspapers.

Yet in the wake of the incompetent immediate post-Katrina response by the federal government, my guess is that Chertoff or Brown or no one’s head will roll. That would indicate Bush was wrong and we all know he is never wrong, his weak mea culpas about an inadequate response notwithstanding.

So let me pose this question: If a terrorist detonates a nuclear weapon somewhere in the U.S., will the federal government claim that they never anticipated such an act could occur? No need to answer that. I know I feel much safer.

What has been taking place in New Orleans over the past week in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the busted levees no doubt is high drama. New Orleans is also a large American city, currently ranked 34th in population nationally if I am not mistaken. But New Orleans is also a unique and distinctive place among American cities. It’s a true American melting pot of cultures — French, Italian, Irish, African, Spanish, you name it. It is the jazz spot and the party spot of the United States. So no one should really question why so much news coverage has focused on the unfolding tragedy that has been New Orleans.

But across the state line to the east, Katrina has just blown an entire state’s coastline all to hell. If I didn’t recognize the Mississippi Gulf Coast because of all its casinos and growth over the past decade, I would surely not recognize it now because the hurricane blew so much of the area away. So I hope that the news media does not let such a compelling story as the saga of New Orleans obscure that disaster has struck with a vengeance on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Although it is no megapolis at 70,000 people, Gulfport is Mississippi’s second largest city. Along with Biloxi and outlying areas Harrison County has almost 200,000 people. Biloxi and Gulfport have become quite the tourist Mecca in recent years because of the casino industry. But it’s always been a nice place for a tourist to stop and enjoy the man-made beaches on Mississippi Sound and see tranquil sights like the oak tree in the picture above.

A real tragedy is going on in Mississippi where Katrina struck, especially on the coast. We need to keep that in mind. It led Stan Tiner, editor of the Knight-Ridder paper in Biloxi, the “Sun Herald” to make a plea for his area’s needs:

“Medical needs, food, water, gasoline — are all needed and now. Some say our plight coupled with the unbelievable state of degradation in New Orleans represents the greatest humanitarian crisis in American history. This has led us to profoundly understand our dependence on others. In this moment of need, we wonder who will help us? We are even so bold as to send a message from the lost cities of the Mississippi Coast: Will you help us?”

Ugh! First searing heat, now this! I looked outside my truck window and saw the first pair of lovebugs of the season. Then I saw the first two pair of lovebugs of the season. It’s only a matter of time that my pile of quarters for laundry will be depleted for the car wash.

What are lovebugs you say? They are a.k.a. Plecia nearctica Hardy. Hardy discovered them in Galveston in 1940. Here is what Texas A & M University says about them:

“Large numbers of adults emerge primarily in the spring (May) and fall (September). Males and females fly and couple in open areas along roadways, appearing to swarm in weak flight. Although females live for only a week or so, adult flight activity lasts for a period of about 4 weeks. Eggs are deposited in swampy areas and ditches. Larvae develop through several stages (instars), becoming about 3/8 inch long and slate-gray with dark heads. Thereafter, they pupate in the soil and emerge as adults in about 8 days.”

Be that as it may, these pests swarm ferociously in these parts (Southeast Texas). They are found in all the Gulf Coast states and even a little way up the Atlantic seaboard, last I heard. The only method of successfully killing them is with automobiles. They stick to car hoods and grills and headlights and windshields like flypaper. Old joke: What’s the last thing going through a lovebug’s mind? Its ass.

Of course, as high as gasoline has become (up 33 cents overnight at some area stations to $2.99), I doubt I’ll be doing a whole lot of driving.

Apparently some good news from NOLA.

(CNN) — Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday.
Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in a picture taken Monday night by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer.