Wow.

To be brutally honest, when Katrina reared her ugly head late last week, I didn't make much of it. As is my custom with any hurricane in the Gulf, I called my old man to make sure they were hunkered down. Sure enough, he and the stepmom were barricaded in their fortified compound with Dewar's, Marlboro Lights, and DVDs...and sure enough, they got through it unscathed.

Then she/it hit New Orleans, and it was a whole different story. You've all read about it, or seen the pictures on TV. There's definitely no need for me to post any links to coverage.

I mean this is bad, really fucking bad. Initial reports said that The Big Easy missed the burnt of the storm itself. But no one was prepared for the aftermath. No one was prepared for the whole city to be underwater, for chunks of bridges to float away, for entire neighborhoods to wash away.

A lot of the population of New Orleans is poor. They had nothing to begin with, and now they have even less. They've turned to acts of sheer and utter desperation and frustration--shooting at rescuers, looting, rioting. A friend who works for a hospital in the burbs knows a doc down there who's holed up in a hotel and can't even get out to treat people, and he says most health care providers are in the same situation. We're looking at a downright nasty unsanitary gross public health crisis, the kind of shit you'd see in Calcutta or Sumatra, not in the USA.

I was in New Orleans once, for Mardi Gras. I stood on Bourbon Street and gawked at titties while drinking like a fish. I paid no heed to the beautiful old homes, the cemeteries, the music, the culture. Now that's wiped out. In my older wiser years I always keep swearing I'll go back. But now I'm not sure what I'll be able to see.

Do what you can to help, folks. My self-absorbed ass is going to be out west this weekend, but this is still going to eat at me. I started really reflecting on it three days too late, but I don't see forgetting about what I've seen and read for a long time.