In the same vein as the Holloway and Popovich stories, said the vampire, one might consider the behavior of New Orleans revelers in the race of Katrina, the oncoming hurricane.
New Orleans, like Holland, below sea level. About 12 feet below sea level, according to maps. The industrious Dutch have, for hundreds of years, kept Holland from flooding, most of the time. The same can be said for the people of New Orleans, as they have built levees to keep out the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. And that has, mostly, prevented flooding. Of course, they have been lucky, too. Camille swerved east and hit Biloxi. Other storms have veered off or died down sufficiently that New Orleans remained unscathed.
This one, Katrina, looks much different. It is gaining strength instead of dying. It is not veering much from its track over New Orleans.
On the TV news, it was reported a couple hours ago that the French Quarter was eerily quiet and nearly deserted. But suddenly that good news swerved off and was replaced by reports of hundreds of revelers, laughing, happy people going in and out of bars and drinking daiquiris and other concoctions and having a high old time. This scene was presaged in a novel by John D. MacDonald a few years ago.
“Condominium” was one of his larger books, and it described the construction industry in Florida and the building and eventual strike of a very strong hurricane. Much of the data about this hurricane came from descriptions of the devastation in old news reports of prior strong hurricanes. Many of the people along the Florida coast, in this novel, refused to leave and began “hurricane partying.”
If Hurricane Katrina maintains anywhere near its current wind velocity, and if the storm surge is anywhere near the 20-plus feet predicted, then I predict that, come noon on Monday, New Orleans will still be filled with revelers—dead ones.
Drinking and making sensible decisions do not go together.
Anyone interested in hurricanes and the damage that might occur, and anyone interested in human behavior might wish to find an old paperback copy of “Condominium.” It is well worth the read, especially if you live along the southern Atlantic or Gulf coasts. Or even if you don’t.
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About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre.
