In my other summer reading book, Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward described one family’s perspective of Hurricane Katrina and the few days prior. On August 29, 2005, the category five storm touched down in the gulf coast, hitting New Orleans especially hard. The natural levies that the city had put in place failed, and much of New Orleans flooded. Ward accounted these events in her book, where the Batiste family had to flee to the attic of their house to escape the rapidly rising waters. Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the US.
Seven years later, to the day, New Orleans and the gulf coast are being threatened by another dangerous hurricane. Hurricane Isaac, only a category one storm so far, is traveling through the gulf and making a beeline towards the Big Easy. Don’t be fooled though- Isaac might not have the wind speed of a hurricane like Katrina- but what it lacks in speed it makes up in rain. Lots of rain. A slow moving, heavy precipitating storm is a huge threat to New Orleans, who is still recovering from flooding seven years earlier. The city is evacuating, many people moving away saying that this is the last straw. If this storm cripples New Orleans again, how much longer will it continue to be a metropolitan hot spot? Or will New Orleans be able to take the necessary measures to weather the storm again?
[Hurricane Isaac as it reaches the Gulf Coast]
