After having spent my first 21 years in Miami, I know that hurricane watching can become tedious and anticlimactic. Every year, a handful of storms pop up, sometimes they hit land, and sometimes they do real damage, but real catastrophes are exceedingly rare. In fact, most of the time, hurricanes are among the least-scary of the natural disasters we face — we see them coming days in advance, they often miss, and even when they hit, communities can repair and rebuild.
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans on Monday, it could turn one of America’s most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city’s legendary cemeteries.
Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.
Katrina reached Category 5 level Sunday before weakening just slightly to a strong Category 4 storm early Monday. But with top winds of 150 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.
“All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario,” Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.
In a country as prosperous as ours, it’s hard to imagine a natural disaster leaving as many as one million people homeless, but Katrina could leave much of the city under 30 feet of water and destroy up to 80% of the city’s homes.
Of all the major population bases in the U.S., New Orleans is the least equipped and most vulnerable when it comes to a storm like this one.
Experts have warned about New Orleans’ vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.
Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.
After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.
In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.
“We’re talking about an incredible environmental disaster,” van Heerden said.
We’ll know soon enough if Katrina makes a direct hit or spares New Orleans from this nightmare scenario.
I know some readers live in the area and/or have family nearby. I hope you’re safe and out of harm’s way. As soon as you’re able, be sure to give us an update.