We Need A Test Run

In a few days Hurricane Dean should be slamming into Mexico twice. A system of high pressure is sitting over the Gulf Coast and is pushing the storm on a westward path. All of the local officials and media are scaling back their paranoia now that we have a good idea it’s not coming this way. I know I have regular readers of this blog who follow my mood swings. I just want to inform you all that I have not gone completely crazy with my next statement.

I am disappointed that a storm hasn't come closer to us.

Before you look up my HMO and find the name of my primary care physician let me explain. Right now there are about 300,000 people living in the city. Some of them are just getting back in their homes. Others are building bigger and better before. There are hundreds of people who have better jobs and better opportunity. Jim Letten and his team are finally exposing the corruption. The Saints season is about to start and I think we have a shot at the Super Bowl. On a personal note, my professional status is better than it’s ever been and my neighborhood is coming back to life with every Road Home closing. The people that live here have truly accepted the fact that we are going to pay some dues for the next few years in order to revive the place we love. With all of that being said, I still feel shaky knowing that the Corps of Engineers is responsible for protecting me. Call me crazy but I have ZERO confidence in anything the federal government does outside of bombing nations that support terrorism. Wait….we got that wrong too. I honestly don’t trust them and I think they just put the same faulty floodwalls right back hoping they won't fail. Unless we get some tropical conditions in here to see if the plan is faulty, no one will be able to truly complain. Hell, our city leaders probably won’t complain anyway but a brother can dream. Now, I don’t want a Cat-5 storm to come up the mouth of the river and wash it all away. I just need a decent wind and a good tidal surge. I need to know if the pumps are going to fail. I need to know if the city is going to be able to evacuate people. I need to know how long before they let me back to my house if the storm passes and nothing happens. I realize Dean was a little too big for a test but I am sure there is a little cousin out there that won’t be bigger than a weak category one that could come through here. We all could use a good reason to visit our refugee family members in other cities while we see what’s going to happen. It’s either going to make everyone more confident or more aggravated. We need to know either way.

P.S.

Is Kathleen Blanco going to call a state of emergency every time a hurricane forms in the Atlantic? I know she wasn’t prepared for Katrina but damn. Are they trying to give everybody a heart attack?