N'yah, What's Up, Doc?

Three years ago, New Orleans' leading local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, National Public Radio's signature nightly news program, "All Things Considered," and the New York Times each methodically and compellingly reported that the very existence of south Louisiana's leading city was at risk. Hundreds of thousands of lives were imperiled by exactly the sequence of events that occurred this week.

All three news organizations also made clear that the danger was growing because of a series of public policy decisions and failure to allocate government funds to alleviate the danger.

The question raises itself: what should we know about Central Coast emergency planning/budgeting/policy decisions to withstand an emergency here? Such as an earthquake? Diablo Canyon cooling system explosion? Tsunami protection for the coastline? Power failure over the entire area?

Blogophone props to 23-year-old Brendan Loy, who with no formal meteorological training has drawn widespread praise for his hurricane blog. The Irishtrojan.com blog postings urged New Orleans residents to leave the city two days before the mayor issued an evacuation order. Sphere: Related Content