Friday, September 23, 2005

Rita Friday

Satellite photos:
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/.

I have to say, as frightening and destructive as they are, a satellite photograph of a big hurricane is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

It is extraordinarily creepy to be here right now, on a hot, calm day, when you know that only two and a half hours to the east all hell is breaking loose. When three million people need to disperse in a short period of time, it's utter chaos. We're the first major unaffected city to the east of Houston, and you would not believe how many people are here--I'm sure there are 100,000 people here that weren't here a few days ago, and it's probably more than that. The traffic jams are absolutely phenomenal on some roads. I'm not complaining--I'm glad they're here, because it's out of harm's way--but it's amazing how much havoc even a temporary ten percent increase in your population can wreak.

I'm working on a couple of longer pieces, hence the delayed material today. I do have one additional case study in Lazy 101 that I'll be posting shortly, though.

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