...And the levee was absolutely soaking wet.
It's hurricane season in old New Orleans once again, almost exactly three years since the devestation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Large parts of the city have been evacuated, and fingers are crossed that the new flood defences will be strong enough. The expert opinion seems to be that Hurricane Gustav will not directly hit the city; that instead Gustav will hit somewhere to the west. The city is locked down as much as it can be; now it's just a question of waiting and seeing.
We had some floods of our own here in the Midlands last year. They were pretty bad, and some areas are still recovering from them, but in general the government response was pretty good, bearing in mind that it didn't happen in London and most government officials appear to believe that anything north of Watford is an uninhabitable, blasted wasteland right up until it turns into Scotland.
By comparison the US government's response to the destruction in New Orleans seemed naive at best and criminally neglectful at worst. Even now, three years on, the scheme to upgrade the levees around the city are only 25% complete. The earth and concrete levees are stronger and larger than they were in 2005, but even in their upgraded state they still wouldn't stand up to a hurricane of Katrina's strength.
There were lots of fingers pointed in the direct aftermath of the floods alledging that the government's response was slow because the majority of those left homeless in New Orleans were black. It was said that if that level of destruction had happened in a city where the majority of the populace were white then the government would have acted much more quickly. I dont know whether that's the case or not, but I'm certainly very interested to see what's going to happen in the aftermath of Gustav.
Good luck, New Orleans. I've got my fingers crossed for you.