Everyone in Baton Rouge feels I think a guilty and also terrible for all of the people in the way of the Morganza Spillway now evacuating who are going to lose their land, homes, and many of their memories (and one of the virtues of Clark/Chalmers extended mind work is it in part explains exactly why these kinds of loss are so traumatic; even when everybody escapes, nearly all of your externalized memories can be lost). But it is clear at this point there is no alternative to opening the Spillway.
About a month after Hurricane Katrina my wife and I road the City of New Orleans train (from the fabled song) to Chicago. On SIX separate occasions during the trip after finding out we were from Louisiana people apropos nothing said, "I don't know why anyone would want to build cities below sea level anyway." This was a weird meme that everyone I know has heard multiple times. Not only was it an extraordinarily cruel thing to propogate but also just false, ignoring: (1) the entirely human made causes of the coastal erosion and sinking land (things that could actually be fixed if we weren't ruled by venal idiots and if our post-Reagan/Bush regressive tax code didn't in addition necessitate such a preciptious decline in infrastructure spending in this country), and (2) the gigantic percentage of the United States' shipping, petrochemical, and seafood that originates in and/or comes through Louisiana. If the whole state were to pick up and leave, as the out of state Bush dead enders kept personally berated us for not having done prior to Katrina, it would simply destory the United States economy as bad or worse than the Great Depression. But don't try to explain that to someone who is laughing about how maybe if people didn't party so much in New Orleans, then there would not have been a problem (one prominent conservative academic philosopher stated this in joking way on his blog during the height of the dying). I mean I tried to explain things with the first four people on our Chicago trip who subjected us to the snark about building cities underwater, but then decided to keep my mouth shut after that.
I'll do a post with some of the percentages (our contribution to seafood, petrochemical, and shipping) later, but I thought the above map was worth sharing now. Even though the effects will be terrible for many, there really is no alternative but to open the Spillway. [Also see latest from the Baton Rouge Advocate HERE. One of the many nice things about this city is that we have a non-Gannett, locally owned paper, with a staff of great reporters and editors actually keeping us informed about matters of local import. The big news today is that the entire levee is shut to foot traffic as of today (no more pictures like yesterdays from me), given the elevation levels if there is a breach in Baton Rouge over 100,000 homes will be destroyed, and yet more potential environmental hell, as petro-chemical refineries and related plants are again in the flood's way, including downstream from the Morganza Spillway.]
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