Looks like New Orleans got lucky with Gustav... A good thing in the short term, but ultimately maybe not the best situation. Each year, the sediment under New Orleans compacts a bit, and sea level rises a bit. On a hurricane-prone coast, that differential between an ocean with additional storm surge and a city full of people below is eventually going to get unsustainable. I wonder how tall we will build the levees in the future. If the city is forty feet below sea level, will we still keep rebuilding it every time a hurricane hits? Don't get me wrong; I love visiting New Orleans as much as the next guy... but ultimately it seems like a bit of a money pit. To some extent, Gustav's glancing blow may encourage people to continue to live in a geologically untenable situation. (Update: It seems Andy Revkin was having similar thoughts this morning.)

Oh well... I'll save the worrying for later. For the moment, I'll be happy that the damage appears to be as light as it was. Of course, with Katrina, it also looked pretty good on the day after, and then the city began filling up with water pouring in past breached levees. I'm going to keep my eye on New Orleans for a while yet.

In the meantime, though, there's a new hurricane en route to the States, and this one may come to my neck of the woods: Hanna. Something new to think about...

Labels: hurricanes, news