Hurricane Katrina

First of all, I want to send out all of my heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families - those who have lost their homes, lost loved ones, and those whose families and friends were affected by this devastating hurricane. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to go through a disaster like that, and pray I, or any of the people I care about, never have to. I have a friend who lives around the area of the hurricane, and I couldn't imagine how I would have felt if I lost him to Katrina.

I just finished watching a 'National Geographic Explorer' that was made last year, about the violence this planet is capable of unleashing - case in point, the Tsunami that devastated the Southeast Asia region on December 2004. One of the natural disasters they covered was on hurricanes, and what shocked me the most about this particular segment was the dark omen it offered: a hurricane hitting the city of New Orleans in the future.

They pointed at Hurricane Ivan, which hit the Florida panhandle last September, as the latest example of a hurricane that was predicted to blow by Bourbon St., but turned away instead. They also pointed out that the main levy was highly inadequate for protecting from a hurricane: it was six feet lower than the height necessary to protect from the water level a Category 3 storm would bring. The simulated images it showed next was utterly shocking to me - it looked exactly like the images I have seen of New Orleans for the past week.

They said that the city of New Orleans, with all of the hurricane warnings they receive every year, was "basically playing a game of Russian Roulette." Tragically, this time around ... the barrel was loaded.

If anyone reading this would like to help with the effort to support the victims of Hurricane Katrina, please follow the link to this website:

The American Red Cross