Here is a picture of 6th and 7th street in the burgh, during Hurricane Ivan a year ago. How many hundreds of miles is pittsburgh inland? And this is the flooding that occured from a hurricane that was just about blown out. Its not the winds, but the rains that can cause damage. Flooding is more dangerous than high winds in a hurricane. Duh! No one saw the diaster in New Orleans happening? Ever drive to New Orleans? What do you have to cross to get to the city? Water. Lots of it. No matter which direction you come from: water. The city is surrounded by water. I was in Florida about 7 years ago for a boring conference - the only exciting thing was a hurricane, a category 1 or 2. It flooded our hotel, killed a couple of kids who were swimming in a flooded street and got electrocuted. Again, flooding was the worst damage. You wonder what goes on in the brains of these important leaders: Bush has been to New Orleans, and he knows it is surrounded by water. He must know what a category 5 or 4 hurricane can do: his state Texas gets hit by hurricanes (remember the Galveston hurricane years ago? They still study it in Texas grade school history books - of course Bush went to private school in new england so didnt read that i guess). Rumsfeld and Iraq: People will be meeting our troops with flowers. Condi Rice: no one could imagine planes flying into buildings like missles (actually, she received a briefing about that after new years eve arrest of terrorist in Seattle, 2000). One thing I have learned in academia: no matter what the education level, or status of the individual, our "very important people" arent any smarter than the guy on the street. Hey, ask the parking lot attendant in the strip district (6 and 7th street) about the Allengheny river, and flooding - he'll tell ya!
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