KATRINA!

Hurricane Katrina’s effect on New Orleans and surrounding areas has been likened to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that essentially wiped out an entire city. Like Katrina’s impact on New Orleans, much of the resulting damage to San Francisco was collateral in nature. The earthquake shattered buildings, but it also shattered manufactured gas and water pipelines. Fires started by the broken gas mains could not be put out because of the broken water mains. As a result, much of San Francisco burned to the ground. In a similar fashion, Katrina did not do a great deal of damage initially, but after it passed New Orleans, the water continued to rise through breached levees. Katrina’s full fury was felt along the Mississippi coastline around Gulfport and Biloxi where a tsunami-like surge 20 or more feet high washed away everything up to one mile inland. As bad as the situation is in New Orleans, it might be worth remembering that a flattened and burned out San Francisco was rebuilt.