This weekend I booked my travel to New Orleans for the JazzFest. I made the pilgrimage annually for six years running back in the day, but haven’t been to New Orleans except en route to Baton Rouge for a long time, and not at all since Katrina.

In preparation, I made a donation to WWOZ, who are doing their annual fund drive this week, and who are giving me a ticket to the fest for one day as a thank you. I thought about buying my other ticket online, but since day-of-fest tickets are only three bucks more than post-TicketBastard pre-orders, I’d rather give my extra few bucks directly to the festival, thank you.

So speaking of Katrina, I have been silent about my outrage over the handling of the catastrophe, but just tonight I came across this blog post comment from the day before Katrina made landfall that includes the text of the NOAA warning. It’s astonishing to read this and then consider the lack of actual governmental preparation for the impact.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

sigh. I just don’t even know how to comment on that. Just note that this was known to a major government agency in advance. Shouldn’t we have been able to apply some of that homeland security “preparedness” to this?

In any case, if anyone’s going to be in NO for the second weekend of the fest, let me know! (The letting me know part is an exercise for the reader, since I had to turn off comments ’cause of all the spam… but my email address is eminently guessable, not to mention probably pretty easy to find online.)