Rodent Regatta

• Hurricane Katrina made it’s Gulf Coast landfall on August 29, 2005, at 06:15a.m. CDT as a category four hurricane in Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.
• Earlier a category five storm, its pressure dropped to as low as 902mbar.
• The history of this storm and what it has left behind is still unfolding. Wikipedia has some of the best information. The story continues.

The clock is running since the Gulf landfall. Elapsed time is now showing 102.75 hours. That’s four days, six hours and forty five minutes.

Rescue efforts are continuing in New Orleans. Others in New Orleans have been rescued from their homes, but they are stranded at the Superdome or in front of the convention center or on an I-10 overpass. The U.S. Coast Guard is making some miraculous (televised) aerial rescues from helicopters.

A convoy of buses just rolled into New Orleans this morning. A convoy of military vehicles carrying food (MRE’s) and water rolled into New Orleans this morning.

The President has toured Biloxi this morning with Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s Governor, and Trent Lott, Mississippi’s Senior Senator, and others. There’s hope he’s headed to New Orleans.

We’re witnessing a need to completely rethink what it means to be prepared for a disaster—as individuals, as families, as neighborhoods, as communities, as cities, counties, states—as a nation.

Convoys of buses followed by convoys of trucks with pallets of food or water are one thing. Convoys of buses with an MRE and two bottles of water in every seat would be a different (better?) approach. Roll in, load 50, feed and hydrate them as they ride. Put a nurse on every bus in advance.

We must learn to think and think differently!

[Edit: Okay, okay. Busses is acceptable, but you prefer buses. They’ve been changed.]