It's just incredible. I've been reading report after report, through Google News, about the situation in New Orleans. What a cruel twist of fate, to have survived the hurricane itself, only to find the city drowning afterward from broken levees.

It boggles my mind to think of a city the size of New Orleans (close to 500,000 in the city limits proper and 1.3 in the surrounding metro area) having to be completely evacuated. And from the sounds of it, quite possibly for months!

I remember when Tropical Storm Allison walloped Houston and produced similar urgent urban flooding and chaos. Hospitals had to be evacuated, and it took a long while for pumps to finally remove all the water, for building reconstruction to begin and for the city to generally dry out and return to normal. Allison's effects were felt for years.

But if Allison did a number on Houston in 2001, Katrina's legacy on New Orleans will be an order of magnitude worse. With the dangers of water-borne diseases, no drinkable water, no electricity, the possibility of structural collapse or at least severe damage to buildings and other infrastructure because of the flood waters - I don't doubt that it could be months before some residents can even think about returning to the area.