What they don't tell us

(thinking of Shane Dragon and hoping he and son Sebastian are okay)

Alot of us haven't lived thru a small flood, let alone a big one like what's happening in New Orleans right now while I'm writing this. We forget that water displaces things...we forget that gasoline gets displaced out of car tanks because the tanks are never totally watertight. We don't think about how sewers will back up and spew all sorts of nasty stuff in the streets....how animals might drown and float down the street...or people who are afraid to leave their homes, who then drown, might float too. We don't think about gas lines rupturing from water seeping into them, of electric meters exploding, or fires sparking up and starting as a result of gas or wayward electricity getting onto something dry. And that fire departments usually can't get there to put the fires out. We don't think about looters getting into our homes and taking whatever we might have, even if it isn't alot, because, for them, a flood is an opportunity to get free stuff.

We have no idea what it must feel like when the man-made things we put our trust in fail us.

There's alot we don't think about when we live on high, dry land. We might bitch and moan when there's an inch or two of water in our basements--but have no clue what it's like to have several feet water, sewage, disease, and death engulf our entire lives.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has a blog feature and there are some stories about it here. ZDNet has a column here with more links to blogs and photos.

Take a look. Think about it. Send up a prayer. Be glad you're not there.

photos courtesy of Bill Haber/AP, David Grunfeld/Times-Picayune and Dave Martin/AP