deja vu all over again

Well, it looks like the Gulf Coast is in for it again. Gustav is swelling over Cuba at a Category 4, and Ray Nagin has called it the "mother of all storms." And he might not be exaggerating. "Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said." Katrina hit at a Category 3 (but a Category 5 storm surge); Gustav is expected to gain strength in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.

It seems as though (the government at least) is taking this one much more seriously. There's all kinds of evacuation orders in place and plans for how to get people out of the city, especially the ones who don't have transportation. Nagin made the evacuation mandatory this evening, and his administration has said there won't be any refuge of last resort. He says to the people who stay: you "will be on your own."

This storm is exactly what this city does not need. All those plans I blogged about eight months ago? The ones that said the city would be 100-year-storm protected by 2010? Yeah, maybe the feds should have scrounged up some more spare change to get that done now. Because guess what? There are going to be people who stay. There will be fatalities. "Gustav's storm surge may be 15 to 24 feet high." Those levees couldn't handle Katrina's storm surge -- I guess we'll have to see if they've been repaired enough to withstand Gustav.