Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is expected to make landfall in southern Louisiana in about four hours. At this time, weather geeks are debating whether it will be a category 4 or a category 5 hurricane when it hits. New Orleans is right in the path. According to commenters at Jeff Masters's Weather Underground blog, projecting the impact of a category 5 hurricane on the below-sea-level city has been a classic essay question on many metereological final exams for awhile. Over the last few years, a few worst-case scenarios have gotten into the public eye; they've now been linked around all over the place.

I'm not going to try to keep up with the links. Teresa at Making Light has been keeping tabs on the most reliable sources of older and on-going information.

We'll see what kind of impact this disaster will have on the oil industry and the US economy. Peak Oil blog The Oil Drum is watching the storm and the markets closely.

I'm terrified for the area and its inhabitants.




Light-hearted link to mitigate the gloom: If television's a babysitter, the internet's a drunk librarian who won't shut up.
(via Bookslut)