Well, damn.

I feel bad for having one of my earlier thoughts, when Katrina was approaching, be "oh CRAP -- I haven't seen New Orleans yet." But there it is. It is now too late. I never will see it the way that it was.

Meanwhile, they are busy trying to save any more people from dying than already have. I hope they succeed.

I'm not sure I've got my head all the way round it yet. It's such an unusual (as yet) thing to happen, for a city to be so thoroughly stompled upon so suddenly. So strange, at least to us at this place and time in history. I haven't even seen any serious casualty estimates yet, because it's still so scattered and chaotic and the people who are going there are still too busy doing more important things.

Apparently not all of it is gone. I will still want to visit when it becomes possible again, because people are ornery like that, they will bring as much of it back as they can. People don't easily give up on 300 years of something, for better or worse.