When my family was in New York City, Mr. Phillips informed me that Katrina was raised to a Category 5 on the morning of Saturday, 27 August 2005.
With only 2.5 years of meteorological and geographical training, I knew that with this magnitude of a storm, what would need to be done. Call a mandatory evacuation of the areas that may encounter the landfall of the storm. Send the police and National Guard around to evacuate everyone, forcefully if necessary. Arrange for shuttles of transportation out of the city, especially for those who do not have cars or money for transportation. At this point the hurricane was slowing down so it probably would not landfall until Sunday night, so if evacuation was started right away on Saturday morning, most of the population would be able to leave.
(Now I understand there are always the very prideful people that will stay and drown clinging to their roofs, but there is not much you can do about them.)
The president should be notified and should be getting continual up-to-the-minute reports from the Hurricane Center of the NOAA. The president, as well as the governors and mayors of the places along the predicted landfall area should get on the TV and the radio and say please we need everyone to evacuate now. The shuttles are running at these times from these places.
So the reason I am angry about this is because how come me, a punk senior in college studying geography, knew exactly what should have been happening on Saturday morning, but the Federal government did not act until 2 days after landfall on Wednesday, 30 August 3005.
Also this should not be a surprise, anyone studying climate or the weather, including government officials, would know that for the 2005 hurricane season there were predicted for being higher than normal numbers. The official outlook from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service released this report in May http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane2005/May/hurricane.html . Here is the summary of that report:
�NOAA�s 2005 Atlantic hurricane season outlook indicates a 70% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 20% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 10% chance of a below-normal season. This outlook is produced by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Hurricane Research Division (HRD), and National Hurricane Center (NHC). See NOAA�s definitions of above-, near-, and below-normal seasons.
The outlook calls for 12-15 tropical storms, with 7-9 becoming hurricanes, and 3-5 of these becoming major hurricanes. The likely range of ACE index is 120%-190% of the median. This prediction reflects a very likely continuation of above-normal activity that began in 1995.
The predicted 2005 activity reflects 1) an expected continuation of conditions associated with the tropics-wide multi-decadal signal, which has favored above-normal Atlantic hurricane seasons since 1995, and 2) an expected continuation of warmer sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean than can be accounted for by the multi-decadal signal alone. The outlook also reflects the expectation of ENSO-neutral conditions (no El Ni�o or La Ni�a) during August-October, the peak months of the hurricane season. An updated Atlantic hurricane outlook will be issued in early August.�
So this is hard to digest. But that is why I think the article Jessi posted on her social justice blog hits the nail right on the head. I feel that Hurricane Katrina was supercharged by the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which in my geographical and environmental training and research I learned was caused by our irresponsible use of fossil fuels and their relationship to global warming.
Also it is very true, and not just in New Orleans, that Americans have been filling in wetlands and expanding development closer and closer to the coasts. God made wetlands for a reason. This is one reason I have decided to abandon meteorology and pursue a career in environmental land use planning in an attempt to fix these problems we have brought on ourselves.
And thirdly, I absolutely agree with the fact that our society�s unconcern with addressing or doing anything about the poverty in America or around the world created the kinds of problems of looting and firing upon helicopters that happened in the aftermath of this disaster. People can only be pushed so far with out breaking. (see Watt Riots, LA, 1965)
As a scientist, trained about natural disasters and passionate about the weather, one thing is clear to me, when God proceeds with hurricanes, tsunamis, monsoons, volcanic eruptions, and or earthquakes it is a wake up call for us. We must change the way we live. I know that rainbows are a reminder to us that God will never flood the earth again, but I strongly believe that we are in the end times and that Jesus is coming back soon. Natural disaster = stop being stupid and repent.
So what do we do? What can we do? I think it is best to continue praying for these people who lost homes and lost family members and for the federal and local governments to be swift and thorough in their clean up of the numerous environmental hazards ranging from petroleum to human waste to household cleaning products. Let�s check out some Jeremiah 15 and Job 34 and pray a lot. Like Katie once said, prayer is not the only thing you can do; it is the BEST thing you can do.
word.
byeness
