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All;
The terrible nightmare that has befallen the Gulf coast, and particularly New Orleans and coastal MS, will take months, maybe years to recover from. It will likely leave some scars that will never disappear. Our thoughts and prayers go to those souls who lost their lives last week, and those many thousands who are affected in so many ways.
In this age of 24/7 news coverage, the disaster footage comes right into our homes. We can relax in our easy chairs, while watching the graphic pictures, almost as if it were one of those diasater movies from the seventies. The news media, having to "fill in" time, and grab ratings, like vultures fighting for the remaining flesh on a rotting carcass, are often repetitive and inaccurate. Additionally, and sadly, they are prone to exaggeration. This was a horrible tragedy, probably the worst in 100 years. But, before we get too carried away, we should open the history books and look back on two cataclysmic events which struck the U.S. at the dawn of the 20th century, before the age of media hype. These events struck suddenly, without warning, and were truly "of Biblical proportions", in an age before modern comforts, of any kind. The destruction was complete, and the killing was almost total.
I am talking about the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Here are two links for those needing a history lesson:
and
http://www.noaa.gov/galveston1900
The terrible nightmare that has befallen the Gulf coast, and particularly New Orleans and coastal MS, will take months, maybe years to recover from. It will likely leave some scars that will never disappear. Our thoughts and prayers go to those souls who lost their lives last week, and those many thousands who are affected in so many ways.
In this age of 24/7 news coverage, the disaster footage comes right into our homes. We can relax in our easy chairs, while watching the graphic pictures, almost as if it were one of those diasater movies from the seventies. The news media, having to "fill in" time, and grab ratings, like vultures fighting for the remaining flesh on a rotting carcass, are often repetitive and inaccurate. Additionally, and sadly, they are prone to exaggeration. This was a horrible tragedy, probably the worst in 100 years. But, before we get too carried away, we should open the history books and look back on two cataclysmic events which struck the U.S. at the dawn of the 20th century, before the age of media hype. These events struck suddenly, without warning, and were truly "of Biblical proportions", in an age before modern comforts, of any kind. The destruction was complete, and the killing was almost total.
I am talking about the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Here are two links for those needing a history lesson:
and
http://www.noaa.gov/galveston1900